Out of the twenty or so US based CDNs, what CDNs are the best match for Alibaba? There is one US based CDN that is a great fit for Alibaba and that is Yottaa. Yottaa has a development staff in the US and also in China. Second, Yottaa specializes in ecommerce and has created a nice niche for themselves that targets the CMO’s at ecommerce companies. Thus, Yottaa CDN technology is in line with what Alibaba is doing in the US.
Yotta has raised $29M in VC, so they could probably fetch somewhere between $350M to $450M. Yottaa shouldn’t entertain anything less than $350M. They have invested too much time and resources in building a solid CDN platform and customer base. Let’s not forget that Yottaa has changed business models mid-way through their lifecycle, and has created a new business model that works for them. The only other two CDNs that make sense for an Alibaba acquisition are Fastly and Instart Logic. These two will be a little more expensive, but Alibaba can afford them in a heartbeat. Which CDNs are not a good fit for Alibaba? Akamai, Limelight Networks and Aryaka Networks.