This week in Boston tech, we’re tracking a powerful cyber attack that Akamai Technologies reportedly helped to get under control, more Amazon expansion news, OpenView’s efforts to boost women investors and entrepreneurs, shoe companies’ local expansion, and more. Read on for details.
—Software from Akamai (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]) helped GitHub, the popular software development platform, fend off what is believed to be the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack ever, Wired reported. The 1.3 terabits per second of traffic lobbed at GitHub’s servers on Wednesday surpassed the DDoS attack on New Hampshire-based Dyn in late 2016. Read more about the latest DDoS attack in this Akamai blog post.
—Amazon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) could hire at least 2,000 more employees in Boston in the coming years, if newly unveiled plans for additional offices in the city’s Seaport neighborhood come to fruition, The Boston Globe reported. The expansion is reportedly separate from Amazon’s search for a second headquarters located outside of Seattle. [Disclosure: The author’s significant other works for Amazon in Boston.]
—Avid Technology (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AVID]]) said it fired chairman and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr., for violating workplace conduct policies; his alleged conduct was not related to financial matters, the Burlington, MA-based media technology company said. President Jeff Rosica, who joined Avid in 2013, has been appointed CEO.
—Boston-based pet care startup Baroo has folded up its tent. The four-year-old company had raised $3.5 million from investors including Birchaven Group, Merrick Ventures, and The Graduate Syndicate, according to BostInno, which first reported the news.
—OpenView Venture Partners announced it promoted vice president Elizabeth Cain to general partner, marking the second woman to sit on its investment committee. The venture firm also launched a program called Accelerate, which will provide advisory services and other support to women-led software companies.
—Lastly, here’s a pair of shoe-related news items reported by The Boston Globe. First, Japan-based Asics has opened a new office in Boston to house as many as 100 employees in areas like commerce, marketing, footwear, and apparel. Asics bought Boston-based fitness app developer Runkeeper for $85 million in 2016. (Runkeeper is located in a different space than the new Asics office, the Globe reported.)
Secondly, ShoeBuy has reportedly changed its name to Shoes.com and expanded its operations, following its $70 million sale last year to Walmart subsidiary Jet.com. The Shoes.com Web domain was purchased for $9 million after the Canadian company that owned it shut down, The Globe reported.
