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Networking - Thursday, July 27, 2006

Trendwatch: The CDN Upstarts At The Gate

Akamai - we hardly knew you. The grand-daddy of CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) has some fearsome start-up competiton that is taking on funding. Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM), which speeds up delivery of digital content via the Web, said on Wednesday second-quarter profit fell 28%. For the year as a whole, the company said it now expected revenue of $415M to $420M.

Fast on the heals of Akamai, is Tempe-AZ-based Limelight Networks, which raised raised $150M in a first round led by Goldman Sachs. Although privately held, Limelight boldly announced a Q2 revenue increase of more than 35% to "well over $14M." The latest quarter marks Limelight's 11th consecutive quarter of profitability and 20th consecutive quarter of revenue growth.

Up-town from Limelight is another CDN start-up that just received funding - Panther Express. This company was founded by DoubleClick Founder Kevin Ryan. Like LimeLight, it sports an impressive client roster, even though it is much younger than Akamai and Limelight it has managed to close business. Panther recently received $6M in funding from Greylock Partners.