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Technology Stocks : Akamai (AKAM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Guardian who wrote (122)	10/26/1999 9:19:00 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 695

MIT Professor Stands to Reap Windfall As Web Start-Up Akamai Goes Public By JON G. AUERBACH and WILLIAM M. BULKELEY Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Some university professors use sabbaticals to sail around the world or study rocks in Greece. Mathematics Prof. F. Thomas Leighton is using his sabbatical from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to boost his net worth by $193 million. At least. Dr. Leighton, 42 years old, is chief scientist at Akamai Technologies Inc., a year-old Internet start-up slated for an initial public offering Friday. Akamai, which sells a service that speeds up Web-page delivery, uses technology Dr. Leighton helped develop at MIT. Amid growing Web rage caused by long waits to load information, Akamai and its rivals are sitting in one of the hottest spaces in cyberspace. At Akamai's current estimated IPO price of $16 to $18 a share, Dr. Leighton's 11.4 million shares would be valued at just south of $200 million. That will make Dr. Leighton, who began his leave of absence from MIT this fall, one of the richest professors in the world. Akamai co-founder Daniel M. Lewin, a 29-year-old MIT Ph.D. candidate, stands to make a similar sum. Given recent Internet IPOs, the actual value of the shares held by both men could go much higher. Akamai has been one of the Internet's most closely watched start-ups, drawing investments from Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. in recent months. The company runs a network of 1,475 computer servers -- big boxes used to lash together networks -- to shuttle information around the Web. Another factor boosting interest in Akamai is its chief executive, George H. Conrades, 60. Mr. Conrades was a senior vice president of International Business Machines Corp. and president of Internet pioneer BBN Corp., which he sold to GTE Corp. Essentially, Akamai rents space on these servers to customers including Yahoo Inc. and CNN.com, the Cable News Network site, so graphic-rich information can be stored close to Web surfers' computers. In this way, graphics that correspond to California weather information might be stored on a computer server in California, and Boston information on an East Coast computer. Such technologies have generated a lot of attention because of widespread annoyance with the Web's speed, especially with delays for loading pictures, video and other graphical information. Peter Christy, an analyst with Internet Research group in Los Altos, Calif., said, "Akamai did a wonderful job of breaking out of the pack and making people aware" of the possibility of speeding up the Web. Highlighting investor confidence in the sector, Akamai rival Sandpiper Networks Inc. Monday announced plans to be acquired by Digital Island Inc. in a deal originally valued at about $630 million. By the end of the day, Digital Island shares were up nearly 70%, giving the deal a value of more than $1 billion. Inktomi Corp., which uses similar technology to Akamai's, boasts a stock market value of about $5.7 billion. Akamai plans to sell eight million shares Friday, generating estimated net proceeds of $125 million after paying IPO expenses. After the IPO, the company will have 90.4 million shares outstanding, giving it an estimated market value of $1.5 billion. Dr. Leighton couldn't be reached for comment. An MIT spokesman said the school doesn't know if Dr. Leighton plans to return to full-time teaching.