Remember how I said that one of the issues with creating a self-sustaining ecosystem in Portland was the irregularity of liquidity events? Well, I don’t want to get my hopes up, but… we just started the third month in a row with a liquidity event. This time, it’s Janrain getting acquired by Akamai.
Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), the intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences, today announces the company has entered into an agreement to acquire Janrain, the company that pioneered the customer identity access management (CIAM) category. Janrain enables enterprises to enhance digital trust by offloading login and registration workloads, and its integration with Akamai’s Intelligent Edge Platform is expected to provide world class security, regulatory compliance and massive scale to online engagements.
Janrain is one of the original Portland startups of this generation, born out original open source pursuits around identity. And one that went through any number of fits and starts as they worked to figure out the best application of the technology they had developed. In recent years, they found firm footing and traction in the identity management space as the industry caught up to the concepts Janrain had been championing for more than a decade.
Price of the deal was not disclosed. But folks are reporting that it was an all cash deal.
And as a random trivia tidbit, a couple of the early Akamai folks used to live in Portland. Not sure if they still do.
For more information, read the press release or the coverage in the Boston Business Journal and The Oregonian.