Limelight (NSDQ: LLNW), the content delivery network, has acquired multi-platform video ad insertion firm Kiptronic for an undisclosed sum. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was a combination of stock and cash. Updated: Dan Rayburn reports the deal size was small, about $12 million in total. Kiptronic itself was a small company, with around 15 developers. This acquisition means that Limelight, like competitor Akamai (NSDQ: AKAM), is moving upstream, and adding services on top of video content delivery—with this acquisition, it gets a way to monetize the content it helps deliver on behalf of its clients. Akamai bought online ad targeting firm Acerno last year, for $95 million, though that was more about advertising analytics. Limelight has also been moving into mobile video, developing some specialty in delivery video ads to the iPhone platform, as detailed here in SAI. Kiptronic has recently started working with NBC on inserting ads into its mobile videos, where its system was integrated into NBC.com’s existing web-based ad infrastructure, letting the advertisers buy, track and traffic ads and control placement using the same system they use for the general website. The San Francisco -based company had raised at least $7 million in funding from the likes of Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks. More details in release.

Limelight (NSDQ: LLNW), the content delivery network, has acquired multi-platform video ad insertion firm Kiptronic for an undisclosed sum. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was a combination of stock and cash. This acquisition means that Limelight, like competitor Akamai (NSDQ: AKAM), is moving upstream, and adding services on top of video content delivery—with this acquisition, it gets a way to monetize the content it helps deliver on behalf of its clients. Akamai bought online ad targeting firm Acerno last year, for $95 million, though that was more about advertising analytics. Limelight has also been moving into mobile video, developing some specialty in delivery video ads to the iPhone platform, as detailed here in SAI. Kiptronic has recently started working with NBC on inserting ads into its mobile videos, where its system was integrated into NBC.com’s existing web-based ad infrastructure, letting the advertisers buy, track and traffic ads and control placement using the same system they use for the general website. The San Francisco -based company had raised at least $7 million in funding from the likes of Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks. More details in release.

This was to be expected after Amazon’s (NSDQ: AMZN) S3 storage service and EC2 on-demand computing service already leading the way in cloud computing. Now it is launching a content delivery network, supposed to launch later this year, that will take on the likes of big incumbents like Amazon and Limelight (NSDQ: LLNW) and also the slew of starts that have gotten funding over the last two years. As to what differentiation the book giant will have besides the big network, it is going to be charging its customers on usage instead of the long-term contracts current players foist on their clients, as Om explains here. There will be no long term contracts and it will publish the prices online, something of a rarity in the famously-obtuse sector. Amazon CTO Werner Vogels also explains the service on his blog here. Dan Rayburn: When released, the yet to be named product offering will offer HTTP only delivery for objects, both video and non-video related. The offering won’t support streaming, live broadcasting, or provide many of the other products and services that video content owners need. While those are potential features that Amazon may offer down the road, they real story here is that Amazon is going to offer a high performance method of distributing content with low latency and high data transfer rates.

This was to be expected after Amazon’s (NSDQ: AMZN) S3 storage service and EC2 on-demand computing service already leading the way in cloud computing. Now it is launching a content delivery network, supposed to launch later this year, that will take on the likes of big incumbents like Amazon and Limelight (NSDQ: LLNW) and also the slew of starts that have gotten funding over the last two years. As to what differentiation the book giant will have besides the big network, it is going to be charging its customers on usage instead of the long-term contracts current players foist on their clients, as Om explains here. There will be no long term contracts and it will publish the prices online, something of a rarity in the famously-obtuse sector. Amazon CTO Werner Vogels also explains the service on his blog here:

Limelight (NSDQ: LLNW), the troubled CDN faced with an ongoing patent infringement lawsuit, reported Q2 revenue of $30.3 million, a 22 percent increase from the year-ago quarter. Losses spiked to $15.3 million from a loss of $10.6 million, although this quarter a large charge for litigation expenses. On a non-GAAP basis, the company’s net loss for the quarter was $1.6 million. At the end of the quarter, the company had 1,292 current customers, compared to last quarter’s 1,232. For the coming quarter, which includes the business its doing for NBCOlympics.com, Limelight predicts revenue of $30-$32 million. It’s not clear how big the Olympics contract is worth and what it would be without that deal. Release | Webcast (5:00 PM ET) Conference call: CEO Jeff Lunsford said the venture market for emerging businesses is tightening, but that the company is making progress in diversifying away from startup customers. More from the call after the jump He noted penetration in the e-commerce and enterprise space, as well as traditional media customers. Among the recent new wins: CNET (NSDQ: CNET), the aforementioned NBCOlympics.com, Japanese social net Gree, and a major European broadcaster to be named later. Lunsford also noted progress on the legal front—as of the end of the quarter, only 36 percent of the company’s traffic relies on the technology described in the Akamai (NSDQ: AKAM) patent. As for the outlook, the company plans on investing heavily in new infrastructure to support an expected increase in traffic the second half of the year. Beyond that, the company isn’t given earnings guidance. -- Olympics: Yes, the Olympics business is factored into its next quarter outlook. The company hasn’t said, nor did anyone actually ask, what the coming quarter would look like sans the Games. -- IP Growth Rates: Management unclear whether actual IP growth rates are up or down. Previously the company was helped by the law of small numbers (you don’t hear that one too much). -- Pricing: “Historically, we were modeling a 2 percent price decline… it’s probably increased from there, but to specifically quantify it for you...” Lunsford then notes that there are various factors affecting pricing, including larger customers that get cheaper deals.

Tier 3 Customers Will Benefit From Limelight’s Private Backbone to Provision Storage for Rich Digital Media Content

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Akamai Technologies (AKAM) beat the Zacks Consensus expectation of $233.0 million in revenue and 35 cents in adjusted (normalized) earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009. The company reported $238.3 million in revenue and 46 cents a share in earnings. Despite a difficult consumer spending environment, growth was observed in the in-digital media and e-commerce space, [...]

(AKAM) Akamai Technologies Beats Forecasts – Outlook Disappoints

  Akamai Technologies (AKAM) beat the Zacks Consensus expectation of $233.0 million in revenue and 35 cents in adjusted (normalized) earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009. The company reported $238.3 million in revenue and 46 cents a share in earnings.   Despite a difficult consumer spending environment, growth was observed in the in-digital media and e-commerce space, ...

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It is not just the HP-3Com deal that is worrying Cisco, the networking Goliath. In a recent analyst meeting, Cisco CEO John Chambers conceded that over the past 12 months, Cisco has lost market share in both routing and switching, its core franchises. In the niche area of application delivery...

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IPO Hardball's Francis Gaskins presents a solid crop of upcoming IPOs this week. The list below also includes his unique Grade and Rank for each company. For more details please visit the website and subscribe.

If coffee is the morning drug of choice, then the choice of accompaniment is the bagel. Einstein Noah Restaurants (BAGL) offers three brands of bagel specialty and received the following grade and rank C, 6.5 FBR Capital (FBCM) is the REIT subsidiary of financial powerhouse Friedman Billings C+, 6

Technology is also on the rise with the following:
Infinera Corp (INFN) a photonic-based optical networking firm B-, 8 Limelight Net (LLNW) who delivers rich media over the Internet B-, 8.5 and Starent Networks (STAR) a multimedia infrastructure company providing services for mobile B-, 8

Rounding out the group is:
Response Gtncs (RGDX) who provides diagnostic tests for cancer C, 5.5 and Yingli Green Energy (YGE) makes vertically integrated photovoltaic products B-, 8

Related companies mentioned in this podcast are:
(AKAM) (FOLD) (JAZZ) (LDK)