Akamai Reports Fourth Quarter 2009 and Full-Year 2009 Financial Results

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM)

-- Fourth quarter revenue grew to $238.3 million, up 15 percent from the prior quarter and 12 percent year-over-year, and annual revenue increased 9 percent year-over-year to $859.8 million

-- Fourth quarter GAAP net income increased 22 percent quarter-over-quarter to $40.1 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, and full-year GAAP net income increased 1 percent year-over-year to $145.9 million, or $0.78 per diluted share

-- Fourth quarter normalized net income* increased 21 percent quarter-over-quarter to $85.4 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, and full-year normalized net income* increased 1 percent year-over-year to $312.0 million, or $1.67 per diluted share

-- Full-year cash from operations of $424.4 million: year-end cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of over $1 billion

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2009. Revenue for the fourth quarter 2009 was $238.3 million, a 15 percent increase over third quarter revenue of $206.5 million, and a 12 percent increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenue of $212.6 million. Total revenue for 2009 was $859.8 million, a 9 percent increase over 2008 revenue of $790.9 million.

"We were very pleased with how our business performed in 2009, capping a solid year with a return to double-digit revenue growth in the fourth quarter," said Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai. "For the year, we grew revenue, improved our cash gross margins, and generated over $400 million of cash from operations in a tough economic environment. We believe these results provide us with strong momentum coming into 2010, and position Akamai for the next wave of growth on the Internet."

Net income in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $40.1 million, or $0.21 per diluted share. Full-year GAAP net income for 2009 was $145.9 million, or $0.78 per diluted share.

The Company generated normalized net income* of $85.4 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009, a 21 percent increase over prior quarter normalized net income of $70.8 million, or $0.38 per diluted share. Full-year normalized net income grew 1 percent year-over-year to $312.0 million, or $1.67 per diluted share. (*See Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures below for definitions.)

Adjusted EBITDA* for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $111.6 million, up from $95.9 million in the prior quarter, and $100.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the fourth quarter was 47 percent, consistent with the same period last year. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $405.2 million, up from $370.8 million in 2008. Full-year adjusted EBITDA margin remained at 47 percent, consistent with 2008. (*See Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures below for definitions.)

Full-year cash from operations was $424.4 million, or 49 percent of revenue, up 24 percent over the prior year. At year-end, the Company had over $1 billion of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

During the fourth quarter of 2009, the Company repurchased approximately 646 thousand shares of common stock for $15.1 million at an average price of $23.34 per share. For the full-year, the Company repurchased approximately 3.3 million shares of common stock for $66.3 million at an average price of $19.93 per share.

The Company had approximately 171.2 million shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2009.

The number of customers under recurring service contracts at the end of the fourth quarter increased by 91 to a record 3,122, a 9 percent increase year-over-year.

Sales through resellers and sales outside the United States accounted for 19 percent and 28 percent, respectively, of revenue for the fourth quarter 2009.

Quarterly Conference Call

Akamai will host a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. ET that can be accessed through 1-866-271-6130 (or 1-617-213-8894 for international calls) and using passcode No. 93206918. A live Webcast of the call may be accessed at www.akamai.com in the Investor section. In addition, a replay of the call will be available for one week following the conference through the Akamai Website or by calling 1-888-286-8010 (or 1-617-801-6888 for international calls) and using passcode No. 25898500.

The Akamai Difference

Akamai^® provides market-leading managed services for powering video, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been adopted by the world's most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai's global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Financial Statements

*Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to providing financial measurements based on generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (GAAP), Akamai has historically provided additional financial metrics that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP (non-GAAP). Legislative and regulatory changes discourage the use of and emphasis on non-GAAP financial metrics and require companies to explain why non-GAAP financial metrics are relevant to management and investors. We believe that the inclusion of these non-GAAP financial measures in this press release helps investors to gain a meaningful understanding of our past performance and future prospects, consistent with how management measures and forecasts our performance, especially when comparing such results to previous periods or forecasts. Our management uses these non-GAAP measures, in addition to GAAP financial measures, as the basis for measuring our core operating performance and comparing such performance to that of prior periods and to the performance of our competitors. These measures are also used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. There are limitations associated with reliance on these non-GAAP financial metrics because they are specific to our operations and financial performance, which makes comparisons with other companies’ financial results more challenging. By providing both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures, we believe that investors are able to compare our GAAP results to those of other companies while also gaining a better understanding of our operating performance as evaluated by management.

Akamai defines "Adjusted EBITDA” as net income, before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of tangible and intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation, restructuring charges and benefits, certain gains and losses on investments, foreign exchange gains and losses, loss on early extinguishment of debt, gains on legal settlements, utilization of tax NOLs/credits and release of the deferred tax asset valuation allowance. Akamai considers Adjusted EBITDA to be an important indicator of the Company's operational strength and performance of its business and a good measure of the Company’s historical operating trend.

Adjusted EBITDA eliminates items that are either not part of the Company’s core operations, such as investment gains and losses, foreign exchange gains and losses, early debt extinguishment and net interest income, or do not require a cash outlay, such as stock-based compensation. Adjusted EBITDA also excludes depreciation and amortization expense, which is based on the Company’s estimate of the useful life of tangible and intangible assets. These estimates could vary from actual performance of the asset, are based on historic cost incurred to build out the Company’s deployed network, and may not be indicative of current or future capital expenditures.

Akamai defines "Adjusted EBITDA margin” as a percentage of Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues. Akamai considers Adjusted EBITDA margin to be an indicator of the Company’s operating trend and performance of its business in relation to its revenue growth.

Akamai defines "capital expenditures” or "capex” as purchases of property and equipment, capitalization of internal-use software development costs and capitalization of stock-based compensation. Capital expenditures or capex are disclosed in Akamai’s consolidated Statement of Cash Flows in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Akamai defines "normalized net income” as net income before amortization of other intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation, restructuring charges and benefits, certain gains and losses on investments, loss on early extinguishment of debt, utilization of tax NOLs/credits and release of the deferred tax asset valuation allowance. Akamai considers normalized net income to be another important indicator of the overall performance of the Company because it eliminates the effects of events that are either not part of the Company’s core operations or are non-cash.

Akamai defines "fully-taxed normalized net income” as normalized net income, excluding impact from utilization of tax NOLs/credits. Akamai considers fully-taxed normalized net income to be another important indicator of the overall performance of the Company because it eliminates the effects of events that are either not part of the Company’s core operations or are non-cash.

Akamai defines "diluted shares used in normalized net income per share calculation” as diluted common shares outstanding used in GAAP net income per share calculation, excluding the effect of stock-based compensation under the treasury stock method. Akamai considers normalized net income to be another important indicator of overall performance of the Company because it eliminates the effect of a non-cash item.

Adjusted EBITDA and normalized net income should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, the Company's operating income and net income, as well as other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with GAAP.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In accordance with the requirements of Regulation G issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Company is presenting the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and reconciling the non-GAAP financial metrics to the comparable GAAP measures.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

This 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, including statements concerning the expected growth and development of our business and the markets in which we operate, the strength of our business model and cost structure and the superiority of our service offerings. 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, failure to maintain the prices we charge for our services, loss of significant customers, failure to increase our revenue and keep our expenses consistent with revenues, inability to continue to generate positive cash flow, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by unauthorized users or others, failure to have available sufficient transmission capacity, a failure of Akamai's services or network infrastructure, inability to realize the benefits of our net operating loss carryforward, delay in developing or failure to develop new service offerings or functionalities, and if developed, lack of market acceptance of such service offerings and functionalities, and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

In addition, the statements in this press release represent Akamai’s expectations and beliefs as of the date of this press release. Akamai anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause these expectations and beliefs to change. However, while Akamai may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Akamai’s expectations or beliefs as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.