AT&T, Juniper and Akamai face off for Cotendo

A number of companies are competing to acquire US-headquartered online content delivery network Cotendo, according to reports in the Israeli press.

Competitor Akamai was named as a potential buyer on Sunday, media reports stating it was in advance talks with Cotendo to buy the company for about $300m to $350m. However, Israeli financial newspaper Globes reported yesterday that two of Cotendo’s strategic partners, network infrastructure company Juniper Networks and telecommunications conglomerate AT&T, are also in the running.

Juniper was among the investors in Cotendo’s last funding round, which raised $17m in May. Additional investors in the series D round included enterprise software corporation Citrix Systems, Sumitomo’s corporate venturing fund Presidio Ventures, as well as venture capital firms Benchmark Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital. Cotendo has raised more than $40m since its founding in 2008.

Akamai is one of the bigger players in the content delivery market, having acquired a series of firms including network communication company Velocitude, e-commerce advertising cooperative Acerno and enterprise web company Netli, in the last five years.

Cotendo’s relationship with AT&T goes back to July last year, when the two firms signed a non-exclusive agreement to integrate some of Cotendo’s services with AT&T’s network.

Akamai and AT&T each have specific motives for acquiring Cotendo. Akamai filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Cotendo a year ago, having filed a similar lawsuit against Speedera before acquiring it in 2005, and has also been pursuing a case against another content delivery rival, Limelight Networks.

AT&T launched its own content delivery service in June this year, building on Cotendo’s technology, the progress of which could be disrupted by a challenge from a competitor. AT&T also has first refusal to acquire the company.