Akamai Technologies, Inc. announced Thursday that it has acquired “substantially all of the assets” of Velocitude.
A cloud-based content distribution network that improves download times across the globe for myriad prominent companies, Akamai sees no shortage of potential in Velocitude, a start-up that professes that its mobile content service helps consumers purchase products, view product information textually or through video, interact with social media, and receive targeted SMS alerts.
Akamai is moving ahead with the acquisition as part of the company’s ongoing effort to increase it’s strategic position in the mobile marketplace. According to Akamai, which contends that the majority of Web sites are not configured for optimal viewing when accessed by a mobile device, the company hopes to turn around poor mobile usability wherever possible.
Tom Leighton, Akamai’s co-founder, told the Wall Street Journal that the Velocitude acquisition will allow Akamai “to detect what type of phone a user is on and automatically configure the site to appear properly on that phone.”
“By offering a new generation of mobile services,” the company announced, “Akamai plans to extend the functionality of its global network by helping enterprises address the complexity of delivering Web sites and applications to a broad range of Internet-connected devices, starting with mobile phones.”
The acquisition is yet another sign, as the WSJ put it, that Internet companies “are preparing for a more mobile world.”
