Here we go again on the Akamai vs Limelight Networks lawsuit – it feels like being in a circus. I’m not an attorney, so take this with a grain of salt – one thing is for sure, the technology being fought for in the lawsuit is a 1st generation product that is no longer is use today. In fact, LLNW is on the 4th generation product, and it’s totally different from the 1st generation product. That would make perfect sense, because no CDN in their right mind would want to use storage and delivery technology from a decade ago.
But we understand how the corporate game works, in that bitter rivals must use every play in their playbook to wound one another, as much as possible, in order to get ahead in life. After news broke out on the lawsuit, I called Sajid Malhotra, SVP of Limelight Networks to discuss the situation, and more importantly to discuss the State of LLNW, and the progress they have made over the last couple of years. After our conversation ended, I was impressed. The entire LLNW team has turned the ship around, and there is no way to go but up.
Their product portfolio and feature-set are solid, and they have one of the largest global CDN infrastructures in place after Akamai, with 20k+ servers in deployment, which might be slightly be higher than Level 3 and VDMS. The question I ask myself, can LLNW become a billion dollar company again? Absolutely. All the pieces are in place, and I think we’ll see a big bounce in the metrics over time. We’ll analyze those pieces more in detail in the coming week. Disclaimer: I’m not a CFA or a Financial Analyst, so please don’t use this rant for investment purposes.
