Acme Packet, Akamai, & EMC: Three Public Companies Going Places

Exactly where they are going, I’m not sure. They seem to be heading in different directions. But this trio of big Boston-area tech firms, each focused on enterprise customers, has made news in the past week.

—Acme Packet (NASDAQ: [[ticker:APKT]]), based in Bedford, MA, said today it has acquired IPTEGO, a German network-management software firm, for $21 million in cash. IPTEGO’s 28 employees are joining Acme Packet, and should help the IP networking firm broaden its capabilities for helping network operators more effectively manage their communications networks. Last month, I spoke with Acme Packet founder and CEO Andy Ory about the company’s new challenges and market opportunities.

—Akamai (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]), the Cambridge, MA-based cloud platform and networking firm, is going through a management transition period. Chief executive Paul Sagan announced he is stepping down by the end of 2013. (He has been CEO since 2005.) The move is the latest in a series of executives leaving the firm in recent months. A few examples: Harald Prokop, former senior vice president and chief architect, is now chief technology officer at SCVNGR; former chief financial officer J.D. Sherman is now chief operating officer at HubSpot; Emily Glass, former senior product marketing manager, is now with Adelphic Mobile; and former product management and marketing director Annie Bourne is now with Kinvey.

—Meanwhile, EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), based in Hopkinton, MA, keeps plowing forward with strong financial results. The data storage giant reported a first-quarter profit of $587 million, a 23 percent increase compared to the same period last year. It was the company’s ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit percentage growth. EMC’s chairman and chief executive Joe Tucci said in a statement, “We are in a time of unprecedented IT and business transformation, propelled by the benefits of cloud computing, Big Data and trust.”

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.