Content delivery network provider Akamai announced its buying Dublin, Ireland-based Asavie in an all-cash deal. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Asavie's mobile, IoT and security solutions will be blended into Akamai's Security and Personalization Product line that is sold to carriers, who in turn bundle it for sale to their subscribers.
Asavie offers solutions that provide visibility, control and security for mobile users and IoT devices. One unique characteristic is that Asavie can do the same thing for IoT devices without loading software onto the device. Instead, that work is done on the carrier side.
"We believe the addition of Asavie will help Akamai's carrier partners address enterprise and mid-market customer demand for IoT and mobile device security and management services," said Tom Leighton, chief executive officer and co-founder, Akamai Technologies, in a statement. "What's notable about the Asavie solution is that, as more IoT devices connect over cellular and 5G, it has been shown to be very easy to scale and protect them."
In addition to impending large-scale 5G and IoT deployments, Leighton also said Covid-19 would have a lasting impact on how employees work and businesses operate going forward, which includes the need for better network security wherever employees are working.
"The Asavie suite of software-defined solutions is designed to enable enterprises to provide access to business resources while continuously protecting the business in a world of evolving cyber threats targeting mobile devices, users and applications," he said.
Akamai will also gain an impressive roster of Asavie customers that includes AT&T, Telefonica, Singtel, Verizon and Vodafone on the service provider side as well as technology partners such as Microsoft, IBM, Google Cloud and VMware on the vendor side.
"We've been watching Asavie make headway within both the carrier and enterprise markets," said Roy Chua, founder and principal of AvidThink in a Tuesday morning email to FierceTelecom. "With the increased focus on 5G and continued uptake in IoT, we believed that they were poised for success. Asavie's unique approach essentially allows mobile operators to provide a pre-5G private network slice for enterprise mobile users and IoT devices through use of a multi-tenant private APN. That provides a natural evolution into 5G network slicing that will come with improved SLAs.
"The approach also marries nicely with the uptake of 4G LTE and 5G in enterprise private networks. The Akamai acquisition provides them with the scale of distribution and necessary investment to continue their journey and is highly synergistic with Akamai's current product offerings in cloud security at scale."
RELATED: AT&T re-ups with Akamai through 2023
Asavie, which was founded in 2004, has more than 130 employees, according to a story by the Irish Times, which also reported that Asavie paid out a "€4.23 million dividend last year to investors after recording revenues of €23.6 million and pretax profits of €1.9 million."
Akamai said it didn't expect the deal to have a material impact on its financial results this year.