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Akamai to Acquire Linode

akamai.com

131–140 of 336 posts

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less chance b/c DO is public now!

Yeah, it would be quite an acquihire, and I am already stretching the definition by including Heroku! A true acquisition still is a strong possibility, but certainly far less likely than before the IPO, and it might be described as a merger.

I could see Oracle buying DO

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#132
I've been using Linode since the mid 2000s when Chris Aker, the owner and CEO, provided support on IRC ( OFTC: caker) and the company only had two or three staff.

Great to see how he built Linode organically to the scale it has reached. In the context of venture capital and Y-combinator its a good contrasting story on how successful a bootstrapped, patiently built, profitable sustainable business can become when the focus is on excellent (and personal) customer service.

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#133

I'm very disappointed at all the negativity here. I get it, I'm worried too. I hate the modern trend of the exit always being an acquisition. I hate that the big companies scoop up the good little companies and ruin them. I hate it all. I feel very jaded too, and I'm very worried about what this means too. I have significant investment running on linode and I don't want to have to move it, which also means paying mor…

Quote from Chris Aker's Linode blog post [0]:

"For the immediate future, we will continue to operate as we always have. Akamai has no intention of changing what has made us successful. This acquisition will propel us both forward — not take anything away. Linode will soon be able to call on the power of Akamai to offer entirely new products, services, expertise, locations, and scale, while Akamai will be able to tap into Linode’s deep expertise in compute, storage, and on-demand infrastructure-as-a-service.

Today, we start a new chapter in Linode’s story — one that strengthens our position in a market increasingly looking for alternatives. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

Thank you — our customers, partners, and community — for supporting and empowering us to make cloud computing simple, affordable, and accessible."

[0] https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/linode-and-akamai/

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#134
post #122
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, we are random internet people, and it's a "me vs. you" scenario, but as someone who worked at Linode in 2012, we were a small company, that all worked out of one office, with like 3 admins at the time. Yes, there were various hacks. Yes, there were silly vulns, but positing that one of the employees at that time stole bitcoin is something that I won't stand for. Could it have happened, sure. Do I think that it…

I think in 2012 the tech community's sentiment was actually that Bitcoin was really cool and definitely useful, since it was new and did things in a practical application that we hadn't seen before. It's interesting that hindsight clouds that, it has been viewed negatively for years now but it's not that old yet. (Either way, your main point stands of course.)

> I think in 2012 the tech community's sentiment was actually that Bitcoin was really cool and definitely useful

I don't think there was ever really a consensus on this. Lots of people (myself included, but also quite a few friends) always thought Bitcoin was just kinda useless. It's just that in 2012 there were comparatively low stakes (i.e. no massive energy use, not yet massive amounts of people pouring money in it, no massive amounts of "crypto snakeoil") that it just wasn't worth commenting on.

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#135

As a long time Linode user, I hung in there through a lot of service issues and growing pains. Linode has always been just one of a handful of providers I have, and I figured at _some_ point, all of these issues will result in a solid platform. Well, over the last couple years, Linode HAS achieved this, and is now one of my most reliable platforms. I also use Prolexic DDoS service from Akamai, which was a standalone…

Thanks for sharing regarding Prolexic. That does give me some hope.

If Akamai helps polish up some of the rough edges (there aren't very many for the record) that would be great. I've been eagerly anticipating managed databases for a little while, as well as bare metal and some other things. Would be neat if those things happen a little faster now that they have bigger capital behind them.

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#136
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if Cloudflare is thinking about acquiring DO to round up their next-gen cloud. DO's UI has gone downhill since 2017. It is so bloated and large. Used to be very compact. Folks from Cloudflare if you're reading this - please keep your UI compact. Your main UI (Dashboard) looks more compact that the docs[1] which are too sparse and terrible for developers who are not average consumers. They can handle the comp…

Digital ocean makes a hundred fifty million more in revenue and 50 million more in profits. I don't think digital ocean will acquire them or merge.

This is a meaningless thing to compare. DO has a market cap of $6B and Cloudflare is $37B. This discrepancy is because Cloudflare has insane potential for growth (54% YoY) vs a done and dusted business model of Digital Ocean.

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#137

This worries me. I've been a happy Linode customer for a while. I've mostly only noticed Akamai when they were screwing something up for one of their customers. I try to be ready to migrate off of any service like this at the drop of a hat, but I suppose this is a good reminder to test my plans for getting off Linode, just in case.

Where are you gonna go if you leave Linode? Do you know yet?

Digital Ocean is the most similar, but after getting burned hard by them I will never put myself in that vulnerable position again.

I've been pretty happy with OVH thus far, but at least last time I checked the US presence was minimal and that's important to my customers.

Re: Akamai to Acquire Linode

#139
Linode's been solid for me for 15 years, I only moved some projects to Hetzner for better pricing. Linode staff were always very helpful, nothing but positive experiences. Hope their support will remain great.
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