Proving your identity on the internet is harder than it sounds, and Akamai plans to use technology from Portland’s Janrain to bolster its line of web security services.
Akamai announced Monday that it has acquired Janrain, which raised $79 million in funding since it was founded in 2002, in an all-cash deal. The purchase price was not disclosed but Akamai said the deal would negatively impact its earnings per share forecast in 2019 before becoming accretive in 2020.
Janrain helps retailers and others use identify management software to allow their customers to log into their websites using their identities from social media giants like Facebook and Google. Its technology helps those companies learn more about their customers by analyzing social and login data, and also helps companies minimize fraud.
Akamai will use Janrain’s technology inside its Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform, security software that defends against distributed denial of service attacks and bots that try very hard to look like legitimate customers trying to access a site. Janrain will also help Akamai customers learn how to prevent emerging types of bots from impacting their sites based on past behavior.
Akamai will maintain Janrain’s Northwest Portland office, which employs most of its 135 people at the moment, according to a company representative. The deal builds on some significant deals for Portland startups in 2018, including the $1.2 billion deal for Viewpoint Construction Software.
Janrain — whose early backers included HighBar Partners, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Split Rock Partners, Epic Ventures, Emergence Capital, RPM Ventures and DFJ Frontier — ranked #34 on the GeekWire 200 list of privately-held companies in the Pacific Northwest.
[Editor’s note: This post was updated with the current number of Janrain employees.]
