Tech Tidbits: Akamai, Lilliputian Make Waves

It has been a very busy news week around town, with no signs of slowing down. A few big deals we’re watching today…

—Wilmington, MA-based Lilliputian Systems, a company developing portable-power technology for consumer electronics, has raised a distinctly non-Lilliputian round of equity funding: $40 million out of a planned $60 million, led by Rusnano, the Russian investment fund. Lilliputian’s other investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Altira Group, Stata Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, and Fairhaven Capital. (Rusnano’s other Boston-area investments include BIND Biosciences and Selecta Biosciences.)

Lilliputian started in 2001 and is led by CEO Ken Lazarus. Its technology, originally developed at MIT, involves a chip-based power generator and recyclable fuel cartridges; this approach could potentially replace batteries in smartphones, tablets, and cameras, if it works better.

—Cambridge, MA-based Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]) has acquired FastSoft, a Pasadena, CA-based software firm, for an undisclosed cash price. The move appears to strengthen Akamai in certain areas of network optimization, such as making websites and Web/mobile applications run faster when handling video and other rich media. Akamai says it will integrate the FastSoft team into its engineering group, setting up a center in Pasadena to work on network protocols and optimization technology. The acquisition won’t have a material impact on Akamai’s financials, the company says. But the deal follows in the footsteps of Akamai’s recent acquisitions of Blaze Software and Cotendo in Web and mobile optimization.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.