Google-Akamai Deal?

Google is set to announce its quarterly earnings after the bell Thursday, but that’s not the only reason it landed on the Fast team’s radar Wednesday. There was also chatter on the Street about a possible takeover by Google of Akamai Technologies.

According to a late Wednesday report by the technology blog Business Insider, "multiple ad tech industry sources"—who were not identified—have heard that Akamai is nearing a deal with the Internet search giant. Akamai, whose service improves the performance of websites, saw its shares surge on the report.

Representatives from Google and Akamai said the companies do not comment on rumors.

Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney, however, is skeptical of any so-called deal. He said the rumor has been around for years.

“I don’t think Google needs an Akamai to boost the performance of its own video network,” he said. “They do that pretty well themselves.”

Plus, Mahaney sees a lot of risk for Google if the company does the deal—not only regulatory but business ones as well. He thinks media companies like Netflix and Yahoo! probably wouldn’t want to use Akamai if it was owned by Google.

Shares of Google were up Wednesday as the tech titan prepared to report its quarterly results after the close Thursday.

Wall Street analysts expect another strong quarter for the Internet firm. But while there has been some chatter about a potential to lower expectations for 2012, Mahaney doesn’t think that’s the case.

“We haven’t seen any recessionary impact on Google’s search span,” he said. “And they got a new tailwind just in the next quarter or two (from) all this disruption at Microsoft and Yahoo.”

Mahaney sees mid-to-high teens growth for 2012 in the company’s core search business.

“I don’t think there’s a dramatic change in the growth trajectory,” he said.


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