M&A Action: Akamai acquires FastSoft

This week's M&A news: Akamai and CA Technologies make strategic acquisitions, and AMD invests in a cloud-based gaming provider:

Akamai acquires FastSoft.  Akamai Technologies (AKAM) announced that it has acquired FastSoft, a provider of content acceleration software, in a cash transaction. FastSoft will complement Akamai's cloud infrastructure solutions with technology for optimizing the throughput of video, and other digital content, across IP networks. With this acquisition Akamai gains patented algorithms for improving TCP, adding intelligence designed to increase the speed of dynamic page views and file transfer downloads while reducing the effects of network latency and packet loss. "FastSoft has developed unique acceleration software that is expected to be a strong complement to Akamai," said Bill Wheaton, senior vice president and general manager, Media Division at Akamai. "Their development team possesses extensive experience in advanced TCP technology that we believe can enhance the delivery of rich media, as well as support future initiatives in the areas of mobile applications and cloud performance."

CA acquires Paragon Global Technology. CA Technologies (CA) announced it has acquired privately-held Paragon Global Technology, a software provider that help clients improve service delivery by visualizing data from CA Workload Automation AE. The acquisition brings predictive analytics, critical-path monitoring, service-level agreement management, historical reporting, and a centralized management platform to CA Technologies workload automation product portfolio. “We’re passionate about bringing best-in-class solutions to our customers through both internal development and strategic acquisitions, such as PGTI,” said Dayton Semerjian, general manager, Mainframe, CA Technologies. “The proven technology from PGTI seamlessly integrates with CA Workload Automation AE to help our customers improve service levels as they visualize, monitor, analyze and predict the performance of critical workloads.”

AMD invests in cloud-based gaming provider. AMD announced an investment in CiiNOW, a provider of cloud gaming technology that enables game publishers, retailers and carriers to tap into the growing video game market. AMD and CiiNOW will work jointly to enable the best online gaming experience possible through a vibrant worldwide developer ecosystem and differentiated hardware. CiiNOW delivers a high-speed, low latency, streaming solution with up to eight HD streams per server blade, and up to 272 HD streams per server rack for HD quality game streaming instantly from the cloud. “CiiNOW is on the cutting-edge of online game streaming technology, and it’s clear we share the same vision to drive the cloud gaming industry forward and ultimately provide the best gaming experience,” said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, Heterogeneous Applications and Developer Solutions at AMD. “AMD’s investment signifies our mutual drive to liberate gamers from today’s constraints and move us to the next era of digital content.”