Internet infrastructure giant Akamai Technologies on Monday announced the acquisition of Janrain, a Portland, Oregon-based company specializing in identity and access management (IAM).
Janrain pioneered customer identity access management (CIAM), which helps organizations manage and safeguard their customers’ identities. The company’s solutions have been used by some of the world’s biggest brands, including Samsung, McDonald’s, Philips and Siemens.
By integrating Janrain solutions into its Intelligent Edge Platform, Akamai wants to add new capabilities that should provide enterprises a secure and resilient environment for collecting and storing user data, protecting against identity theft, managing privacy controls, and improving brand loyalty.
On the other hand, Akamai says CIAM customers will benefit from anti-bot services that mitigate the risks associated with credential abuse, and intelligence that will enable them to make informed decisions about who can register and log in based on previous online behavior.
“It is challenging to conduct business online without an inherent and expected level of digital trust,” said Rick McConnell, president of Akamai and GM of the company’s Web division. “Janrain’s Identity Cloud, working together with Akamai’s Intelligent Edge Platform, will provide an added layer of security to allow our customers to know more about their end users and potentially drive additional revenues from that deepened relationship.”
The acquisition is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2019. Akamai has not said how much it’s prepared to pay for Janrain, but the company did reveal that it’s an all-cash transaction that is expected to have only minor financial impact.
Financial analysts forecast that Akamai will post roughly $700 million in sales for the current fiscal quarter, which represents an increase of 6 percent compared to the same period of last year.
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