SOFTBANK BROADMEDIA CORPORATION SELECTS AKAMAI AS STANDARD FOR MANAGED EDGE SERVICES IN JAPAN
·Companies form Akamai Technologies Japan KK as joint venture
·SOFTBANK President & CEO Masayoshi Son and Akamai Chairman and CEO
George Conrades join board as Founding Directors
CAMBRIDGE, MA and TOKYO, JAPAN – March 28, 2001 – Akamai Technologies,
Inc., the leading Content Delivery Service Provider (CDSP), and
SOFTBANK Broadmedia Corporation, a subsidiary of SOFTBANK Group, today
announced that they have entered into a joint venture to create a
jointly-owned company in Japan to be known as Akamai Technologies
Japan KK. The new company will act as the exclusive entity that sells,
distributes, markets, resells and supports Akamai’s next-generation
Internet content delivery services in the Japanese market.
SOFTBANK`s President and CEO, Masayoshi Son said, “We are extremely
pleased to partner with Akamai, which has not only defined, but is the
clear leader in the Internet content delivery market. We are excited
to bring Akamai’s unparalleled services to market in Japan where there
is a tremendous opportunity that is resulting in significant demand.
We believe Akamai Technologies Japan KK will have an immediate impact
on Japanese businesses that are interested in achieving reduced costs
on their Web infrastructure needs, while at the same time maximizing
the overall performance of their Web initiatives.”
Akamai’s Chairman and CEO, George Conrades added, “We are thrilled to
be doing business with the leading player in helping U.S. companies
enter the Japanese market. SOFTBANK has a proven ability to take
innovative companies and technologies and to penetrate them into the
Japanese market as an industry standard. Our partnership with SOFTBANK
supports our commitment to be the number one player in content
delivery in every market we enter and our goal of accelerating our
path to profitability.”
Akamai is already the largest Content Delivery Network (CDN) in Japan,
with hundreds of servers broadly deployed throughout Japanese service
provider networks. Akamai’s customer base is growing as Japanese
content providers realize dramatic performance and reliability
enhancements as a result of Akamai`s services. Akamai enables the
delivery of all forms of content from a globally distributed network
of thousands of edge servers located close to Internet end users.
Taro Hashimoto, SOFTBANK Broadmedia CEO and Interim CEO of Akamai
Technologies Japan KK said, “Akamai’s services are needed in Japan to
fulfill the desire of content providers and large enterprises to give
all users a high performance Web experience. We believe that Akamai
Technologies Japan will revolutionize Web infrastructure in Japan in
the same way that Akamai has forever changed Web infrastructure on a
global basis.”
The Japanese Internet market has experienced significant growth and
ranks second only to the U.S. in total Internet usage. According to
the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan,
business-to-consumer e-commerce is expected to grow to 6.7 trillion
yen by 2004, a 762% increase from 2000 purchases. Furthermore, in a
recent survey reported by IBM Japan, 56% of small and mid-sized
businesses now have an Internet presence in Japan. In addition, Japan
has experienced rapid growth in broadband services, including strong
demand for streaming media services.
About SOFTBANK
SOFTBANK CORP. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9984) is one of the world`s
Internet leaders. Through its ownership positions in more than 600
Internet companies and its unique, global approach to building
Internet enterprises, it is able to realize unprecedented synergies
among its group of companies. In the US, SOFTBANK is the largest
shareholder in leading Internet companies including Yahoo!, E*TRADE,
and CNET. In Japan, SOFTBANK`s activities encompass online financial
services, e-commerce, online media and marketing services, e-business
solutions, and joint ventures with industry leaders including
Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo!, and the National Association of Securities
Dealers (NASD). SOFTBANK is building Internet ventures in Continental
Europe and the UK, Greater China, Latin America, and Korea; and has
joined with the World Bank to help bridge the digital divide in
emerging markets worldwide.
About Akamai
Akamai is the leading Content Delivery Service Provider, serving more
than 3,600 customers worldwide. Akamai has the broadest deployment of
servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with
more than 8,000 servers in 55 countries directly connected within 473
different telecommunications networks.
# # #
Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and
prospects of Akamai`s management that constitute forward-looking
statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may
differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking
statements as a result of various important factors including, but not
limited to, the dependence on Akamai`s Internet content delivery
service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of
its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the
failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors
that are discussed in the Company`s Annual Report on Form 10-K and
other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
Akamai Contacts:
Jeff Young
Media Relations
617-250-3913
jyoung@akamai.com
Steven Wolfe
Investor Relations
617-250-4724
swolfe@akamai.com
SOFTBANK Contact:
Koji Hayashi
Public Relations
81-3-5642-8013
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