Speedera seeks Akamai injunction

'False allegations'

By ComputerWire • Get more from this author

Posted in e-Business, 28th June 2002 06:10 GMT

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Speedera Networks Inc yesterday asked a San Francisco Superior Court judge for a preliminary injunction preventing its rival Akamai Technologies Inc making disparaging comments about it in sales pitches.

As we reported yesterday, the companies currently have four lawsuits pending - based on everything from false advertising to patent infringement and data theft. Speedera now wants to enjoin Akamai from making "gross misrepresentations" about its business and technology.

Speedera says Akamai has been telling prospective clients that it has no network operations center services, that iFilm Inc constitutes the majority of its customer traffic, and that it has never carried out a live streaming video event. Speedera denies all these charges, says it can prove them false, and wants Akamai enjoined from repeating them.

"Akamai has continued its attempts to misrepresent Speedera in order to restrict competitive choice," said Ajit Gupta, CEO of Speedera, late yesterday. "We have evidence that, as recently as yesterday, Akamai defamed our company with false and damaging allegations in conversations with prospects."

Akamai spokespeople were not available for comment at press time, but said earlier this week that Speedera is just trying to turn attention away from the fact that it is being investigated by the FBI. Akamai sued Speedera Tuesday, claiming its CTO has been hacking into the databases of Keynote Systems Inc to get competitive data commissioned by Akamai. Speedera denies these claims.