

Shares in cloud service provider Akamai Technologies Inc. rose more than 8 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday as the company reported strong growth from its security and cloud performance services.
Akamai reported revenues of $584 million for its third quarter, up 6 percent from a year ago. Profits were $76 million, or 43 cents a share, with non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings that don’t include certain costs such as stock compensation coming in at 68 cents a share. Wall Street analysts were predicting $572 million on average for revenue, with non-GAAP earnings of 61 cents a share.
Proving perhaps that crime does pay if you’re providing solutions to combat it, Akamai enjoyed a surge driven by its security business. Its performance and security solutions division delivered revenues of $345 million, up 19 percent year-on-year, while its cloud security solutions subdivision, part of its performance and security solutions division, saw revenues jump 46 percent from a year ago, to $95 million.
Akamai’s traditional media delivery solutions division, best known for its provision of a global content delivery network, saw revenues plunge 14 percent from the same quarter of 2015, to $188 million. The company’s services and support solutions division reported revenues of $51 million, up 17 percent.
Growth came mostly from offshore as international revenues grew 20 percent from a year ago, to $180 million. U.S. revenues came in in at a nearly flat $404 million.
“Akamai’s strong third-quarter revenue and earnings performance was primarily driven by accelerated growth in both our Cloud Security and Web Performance Solutions,” Akamai Chief Executive Officer Tom Leighton said in a statement. “As the cyber-attacks from last week demonstrate, enterprises need solutions capable of defending against massive botnets that are exploiting millions of online devices. This is an area where Akamai’s unique architecture and ongoing investments in global scale and security innovation continue to make a critical difference.”
Akamai can clearly see a future where it’s primarily a security company, not only via its bottom line but in its strategic focus as well. Earlier this month, it acquired Soha Systems Inc. in a move seen as doubling down on security.
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