Akamai Technologies 10-K 2022-12-31

Filed 2023-02-28. 23 sections, 461K characters. Original on sec.gov · Markdown · JSON

What changed since the 2021-12-31 10-KNew, removed and reworded risk factor headings, then every item sentence by sentence.

Cover and table of contents

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☑ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022

or

☐TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission file number: 0-27275

Akamai Technologies, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware04-3432319
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

145 Broadway

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142

(Address of principle executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (617) 444-3000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each classTrading Symbol(s)Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock - par value $0.01 per shareAKAMNasdaq Global Select Market

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes þ No ¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes þ No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer☑Accelerated filer☐Non-accelerated filer☐Smaller reporting company☐Emerging growth company☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of

the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C.

7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. þ

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. o

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No þ

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $14,326.7 million based on the last reported sale price of the Common Stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on June 30, 2022.

The number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share, as of February 24, 2023: 156,275,794 shares.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission relative to the registrant’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of Part III of this annual report on Form 10-K.

Auditor name:PricewaterhouseCoopers LLPAuditor location:Boston, MassachusettsPCAOB ID:238

AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I
Item 1.Business3
Item 1A.Risk Factors9
Item 1B.Unresolved Staff Comments23
Item 2.Properties24
Item 3.Legal Proceedings24
Item 4.Mine Safety Disclosures24
PART II
Item 5.Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities24
Item 6.[Reserved]24
Item 7.Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations25
Item 7A.Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk46
Item 8.Financial Statements and Supplementary Data48
Item 9.Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure93
Item 9A.Controls and Procedures93
Item 9B.Other Information94
Item 9C.Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections94
PART III
Item 10.Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance95
Item 11.Executive Compensation95
Item 12.Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters95
Item 13.Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence95
Item 14.Principal Accounting Fees and Services96
PART IV
Item 15.Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules96
Item 16.Form 10-K Summary99
SIGNATURES100

Forward-Looking Statements

This annual report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events and the future results of Akamai Technologies, Inc., which we refer to as “we,” “us,” or the “Company.” All statements other than statements of historical facts are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are based on the beliefs and assumptions of our management as of the date hereof based on information currently available to our management. Use of words such as “believes,” “could,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “seeks,” “projects,” “estimates,” “should,” “would,” “forecasts,” “if,” “continues,” “goal,” “likely,” “may,” “will,” variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make. Factors that may cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in this annual report on Form 10-K under the section entitled “Risk Factors” and in other reports we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, including the potential impact of any mergers, acquisitions, divestitures or other events that may be announced after the date hereof.

PART I

Item 1. Business

Overview

For 25 years, Akamai has developed and provided solutions to power and protect life online through our massively distributed worldwide network of servers. This platform, which we recently began referring to as the Akamai Connected Cloud is comprised of an edge and cloud architecture for cloud computing, security and content delivery. The Akamai Connected Cloud provides us with visibility and insight into traffic volumes, congestion, attack patterns, vulnerabilities and other activities across the internet's complex intersections of networks and systems. Leveraging these insights, the Akamai Connected Cloud offers solutions designed to protect our customers from threats and attacks, while empowering them to securely deliver their business as they engage, entertain and interact with their customers; and extend their internal systems beyond their corporate perimeters to control access and better leverage the cloud by efficiently building, deploying and securing performant workloads that require single-digit millisecond latency and global reach.

After multiple years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shifted how millions of people work and communicate globally, we firmly believe that the internet’s role in transforming the way we exchange ideas and information and conduct business is more vital than ever. Our strategy is to help continue to drive this transformation by offering compute, security and content delivery services on Akamai Connected Cloud that empower our customers to compete and operate with the scale, resilience and efficiency that their businesses demand. Our platform spans more than 350,000 servers in over 4,100 locations, with roughly 1,300 network partners. We are planning to significantly increase the number of core and distributed cloud computing sites on our platform in order to continue the expansion of our cloud computing services.

Our Solutions

We provide solutions in three core categories: security, content delivery and compute. We also provide solutions for carriers and certain services and support for our customers as they utilize our core solutions.

Security

Our cloud security solutions are designed to keep infrastructure, websites, applications, application programming interfaces ("APIs"), and users safe from a multitude of cyberattacks and online threats while improving performance. Our solutions blend robust automation with customizable protections and managed security services to enable businesses to effectively manage risk and maximize the protections of their infrastructure, networks, applications and APIs. Akamai’s cloud security solutions include web application and API protection, bot management and mitigation to protect against credential abuse and account takeover, customer identity and access management, distributed denial of service ("DDoS") mitigation, protection from in-browser threats to protect against supply chain compromise and audience hijacking. We also offer a growing set of solutions designed to help businesses implement a “zero trust” approach to security. Based on the concept of least privilege, which dictates that users, applications and services utilize the bare minimum amount of access needed to perform their function, these tools are intended to shift protections from a legacy approach based on establishing a corporate perimeter, to a more modern,

risk-based approach. Solutions in this category include Zero Trust Network Access ("ZTNA"), and multi-factor authentication ("MFA"), which replace legacy virtual private networks ("VPNs"), micro-segmentation which replaces legacy network firewalls and helps protect businesses from the threat of ransomware and Secure Web Gateway ("SWG"), that helps protect against the threat of malware and phishing attacks.

Our acquisition of Guardicore Ltd. ("Guardicore") in late 2021 was a significant milestone in positioning Akamai as a leader in technology that powers and protects life online. Guardicore’s microsegmentation solution helps our customers prevent malicious lateral movement in their network through precise segmentation policies, visuals of activity within their IT environment and network security alerts.

Content Delivery

Our web and mobile performance solutions are architected to enable dynamic websites and applications to have rapid response times, no matter where the user is, what device or browser they are using or how they are connected to the internet. These services leverage intelligent performance optimization and real-time monitoring, origin offload and network reliability, and insights that enable enterprises to identify and address performance issues. Akamai web and mobile performance capabilities also include global traffic management, site acceleration, application load balancing, large-scale load testing and real-user monitoring.

Our media delivery solutions are designed to enable enterprises to execute their digital media distribution strategies by addressing volume and global reach requirements, improving the end-user experience, boosting reliability and reducing the cost of internet-related infrastructure. Underlying these solutions is technology to address variable connection speeds and device types, facilitate access to disparate locations around the world, accelerate large file downloads, reliably deliver high-quality live content across various devices and platforms, and enable comprehensive insights and real-time online video monitoring. Akamai media delivery solutions include video streaming and video player services, game and software delivery, broadcast operations, authoritative domain name system ("DNS"), resolution and data and analytics.

Compute

Akamai cloud computing services (which we sometimes refer to as "Compute") include compute, storage, networking, database and container management services that are required to build, deploy and secure applications and workloads. The cloud computing services running on the Akamai Connected Cloud enable companies to distribute workloads and applications across our core to edge infrastructure to help solve the cost, performance and scale that centralized cloud computing platforms present today.

In early 2022, Akamai acquired Linode Limited Liability Company ("Linode"), an established cloud computing platform. This acquisition was a significant milestone in our expansion into cloud computing services. While Linode was traditionally focused on individual developers, we are looking to leverage the Linode cloud computing services for enterprise customers by building new enterprise-grade core and distributed sites and connecting them to the Akamai backbone, which we believe will give Akamai an advantage over its bigger cloud rivals. While many other cloud providers are building their cloud platforms based on a regional, data center-centric model, Akamai is designing its cloud based on the fundamental belief that modern applications will be comprised of workloads that will be distributed across a continuum of computing sites that meet the specific needs of that workload.

Carrier

Our carrier offerings are designed to help customers operate a cost-efficient network that capitalizes on traffic growth and new subscriber services for security, traffic management and content delivery. Our solutions help carriers sell easy-to-deploy cybersecurity protection offerings to their subscriber base; offerings include protection from phishing, viruses, malware and ransomware. Additionally, our carrier security solutions include parental controls to tailor internet access. We also offer DNS infrastructure and content delivery solutions for carriers through our intelligent recursive DNS offering and managed content delivery network, which has dedicated servers for the carriers’ own services with Akamai providing content provisioning, delivery and reporting.

Services and Support

We provide an array of service and support offerings designed to assist customers with integrating, configuring, optimizing and managing our core offerings. Once customers are deployed on the Akamai Connected Cloud, they can rely on our

professional services and security experts for customized solutions, problem resolution and 24/7 customer support. Additional features are available to enterprises that purchase our premium and managed security solutions including a dedicated technical account team, proactive service monitoring, custom technical support handling, security traffic monitoring, technical security reviews, threat advisories and emergency support for security events.

Human Capital

Our employees – our human capital – are our most valuable resources as they are fundamental to our innovation, the operation and ongoing enhancement of the Akamai Connected Cloud, the fostering and maintenance of relationships with our customers and the management of our operations. The importance of our workforce to our success is underscored by the inclusion of corporate mission critical goals centered on our employees – in 2022 we focused on further developing an inclusive, diverse, productive and flexible work environment by embracing the future of work, and on putting our culture and our purpose into action by applying a growth mindset to creatively and collaboratively solve our toughest challenges. Different aspects of our human capital management are overseen by our board of directors as well as its Talent, Leadership & Compensation and Environmental, Social & Governance Committees.

As of December 31, 2022, we had over 9,800 employees located in more than 30 countries (with approximately 60% of those employees located outside of the U.S.) and representing over 95 nationalities, which we believe helps bring a global perspective to our operations. Our employees are grouped across the following roles, with the approximate percentage of the overall population noted: engineering and research and development (33%), services and support (28%), sales and marketing (19%) and administrative functions (20%).

Engagement

We continue to believe that an engaged employee workforce is key to having the productive, ethical and high-performing workplace needed to successfully compete in today’s marketplace. We conduct quarterly surveys of our employees to assess a variety of key metrics related to key topics, such as engagement, inclusion and job satisfaction. Results from these surveys have consistently shown a strong sense of engagement and confidence in Akamai’s future; as Akamai, in 2022, outperformed the high performing benchmark comparative index used by our third-party survey provider, an internationally-recognized consulting firm specializing in corporate culture. We have been acknowledged in respected publications across the U.S., India and Poland as a great place to work. Continuing in 2022, all employees were invited to participate in a company-wide program, developed by a behavioral research organization, that was intended to help us increase inclusivity, become more open to change and accelerate our innovation. In addition, we work closely with the Akamai Foundation to provide community service and charitable matching fund opportunities for Akamai employees, endeavors that have been shown to increase employee engagement. In 2022, the Akamai Compassion Fund, created by employees for employees with support from the Akamai Foundation, was established as a way for Akamai employees to unite and support global colleagues and their families during times of unexpected hardships following a catastrophic event.

Diversity

Akamai is an equal opportunity employer that values the strength that diversity brings to the workplace. We do not tolerate discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, protected veteran status, disability or other protected group status. Akamai supports varied programs and practices designed to promote a diverse and inclusive working environment. We have nine employee resource groups ("ERGs") that offer opportunities for employees to come together for mutual support, education and development. ERGs encompass different racial and ethnic groups, persons with different physical or cognitive abilities, parents, military veterans, the LGBTQIA+ community and women. We track the diversity of our workforce and report quarterly to the board of directors on our progress to improve our representation. At December 31, 2022, global female representation was 27.2%, down slightly from 27.3% at the end of 2021. Racial and ethnic minority representation in the U.S. was 40.3%, down from 41.4% at the end of 2021; however, since the end of 2021 our Black representation and Hispanic representation have both increased. To help us improve the diversity of our workforce, we participate in or sponsor professional development and recruiting forums. We also train hiring managers to draft inclusive job descriptions intended to broaden the pool of eligible applicants.

Retention

We have a demonstrated history of investing in our workforce by offering competitive salaries, wages and benefits. Our compensation and benefits philosophy is to maximize the effectiveness of pay and benefits programs to attract and retain the high caliber individuals needed to drive the success of our business, while balancing cost-effectiveness and competitive factors. Our benefits programs (which vary by country and region) include healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, paid time off, family leave, family care resources, flexible work schedules and locations, adoption and fertility assistance, employee assistance programs, tuition assistance and holistic wellness programs. Our wellness programs include educational offerings on healthy lifestyles, access to mental health experts and access to ergonomic advice and equipment. To foster a stronger sense of ownership and align the interests of employees with shareholders, restricted stock units are held by the vast majority of our employees under our broad-based stock incentive programs, and most employees are eligible to participate in our employee stock purchase plan. We monitor voluntary attrition in assessing our overall human capital. Attrition was slightly down in 2022 when compared to 2021, and, we believe our attrition rate is significantly lower than the global average for technology companies.

As a signatory to the White House Equal Pay Pledge, we are committed to monitoring our pay practices regularly and making adjustments, as necessary, to deliver on this pledge. We currently conduct bi-annual internal pay equity analyses (with the assistance of a nationally-recognized outside consultant), covering gender globally and race and gender in the U.S. We take action to remedy identified discrepancies as appropriate. To date, no widespread patterns of disparity have been identified.

In addition, succession planning is an ongoing priority for our leadership. We conduct annual succession planning for senior leadership, which is overseen by our board of directors, including development plans for the next level of our senior leaders. Annual talent reviews focus on both high performers as well as those with high potential to keep our pipeline of tomorrow’s leaders full.

Development

We invest significant resources in professional development, career advancement and training for our global workforce. All employees participate in our Akamai Elevation performance review program, which provides guidance around setting objectives, developing competencies and receiving feedback. For select employees, we offer leadership training workshops, 360-degree feedback and succession planning exercises to encourage and enable internal promotion and advancement. As a result of these investments and others, approximately 21% of open positions were filled with internal candidates in 2022. All employees are required to complete annual ethics and compliance and data security training. In addition to these required trainings, nearly all of our employees and contractors completed at least one training in our Akamai University program during 2022.

FlexBase

In May 2022, we launched FlexBase, which is a flexible workspace arrangement that allows over 95% of employees to choose to work from their home office, a Company office or a combination of both. This is a significant change to the way employees worked prior to the program, and prior to office shutdowns as part of the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that flexible workforce positions and a focus on employee choice, will make us a more attractive employer, increase productivity, enable us to recruit from a more diverse pool of applicants and present additional growth and development opportunities for our employees. Throughout 2022, we rolled out a number of tools and resources to support this program, such as supporting employees with guidance on maximizing our internal tools to deliver great virtual meeting experiences.

Customers

Our customers include many of the world's leading corporations, such as Adobe, Airbnb, Alibaba, Autodesk, Capital Group, Carnival Corporation, The Coca-Cola Company, Comcast, Crate & Barrel, eBay, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, FedEx, Fidelity Investments, Honda, IKEA, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Maersk Transportation & Logistics, Marriott, NBCUniversal, Panasonic, Panera Bread, PayPal, Philips, Rabobank, Riot Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Spotify, Telefonica, Toshiba, Ubisoft, Viacom, WarnerMedia and The Washington Post. We also actively sell to government agencies. As of December 31, 2022, our public-sector customers included the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

No customer accounted for 10% or more of total revenue for any of the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020. Less than 10% of our total revenue in each of the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020 was derived from contracts or subcontracts terminable at the election of the federal government, and we do not expect such contracts to account for more than 10% of our total revenue in 2023.

Sales, Services and Marketing

We market and sell our solutions globally through our direct sales and services organization and through many channel partners, including AT&T, Deutsche Telecom, Kyndryl, IBM, Microsoft, Orange Business Services and Telefonica Group. In addition to entering into agreements with resellers, we have several other types of sales and marketing focused alliances with entities such as system integrators, application service providers, referral partners and sales agents. By aligning with these partners, we believe we are better able to market our solutions and encourage increased adoption of our technology throughout the industry. Our sales, services and marketing professionals are based in locations across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific and focus on direct and channel sales, sales operations, professional services, account management and technical consulting.

To support our sales efforts and promote the Akamai brand, we conduct comprehensive marketing programs. Our marketing strategies include an active public relations campaign, print advertisements, online advertisements, participation at trade shows (virtually or in person), strategic alliances, ongoing customer communication programs, training and sales support.

Competition

The market for our solutions is intensely competitive and characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent new product and service innovations. We expect competition for our offerings to increase both from existing competitors and new market entrants. We compete primarily on the basis of:

  • the performance and reliability of our solutions;

  • return on investment in terms of cost savings and new revenue opportunities for our customers;

  • reduced infrastructure complexity;

  • sophistication and functionality of our offerings;

  • scalability;

  • security;

  • ease of implementation, distribution of our network and use of service;

  • customer support; and

  • price.

We compete with companies offering products and services that address internet performance problems, including companies that provide internet content delivery and hosting services, security and cloud computing solutions, technologies used by carriers to improve the efficiency of their systems, streaming content delivery services and equipment-based solutions for internet performance problems, such as load balancers and server switches. Other companies offer online distribution of digital media assets through advertising-based billing or revenue-sharing models that may represent an alternative method for charging for the delivery of content and applications over the internet. In addition, existing and potential customers may decide to purchase or develop their own hardware, software or other technology solutions rather than rely on a third-party provider like us. Our security solutions compete with those offered by both hardware and software providers, many of which are more established security vendors than we are. While our Linode based solutions have historically competed with alternative cloud computing platforms focused on individual developers, we anticipate that going forward our cloud computing solutions will increasingly compete with the large so-called “hyper-scaler” cloud computing providers.

We believe that we compete favorably with other companies in our industry through the global scale of the Akamai Connected Cloud, which we believe provides the most effective means of meeting the needs of enterprise customers and is unique to us. In our view, we also benefit from the high quality of our offerings, our customer service and the information we can provide to our customers about their online operations and value.

Government Regulation

As a global technology company, Akamai is subject to complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations in areas such as data privacy and localization, liability for content delivered over our network, bribery, sanctions, export controls, competition, tax and foreign exchange controls.

Privacy laws, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, impact how we use data generated from our network as well as our ability to reach current and prospective customers, understand how our solutions are being used, transfer data about our employees and respond to customer requests allowed under the laws. Other laws and regulations that apply to the internet related to, among other things, content liability, security requirements, critical infrastructure designations, internet resiliency, law enforcement access to information, net neutrality, so-called "fair share" or internet content taxes, data localization requirements, industry regulations applicable to key suppliers to some of our customers and restrictions on social media or other content can have an impact on our business. For instance, regulations have been enacted or proposed in a number of countries that limit the delivery of certain types of content into those countries. As an example, restrictions were adopted in India in 2020 prohibiting access to identified Chinese applications. Enactment and expansion of such laws and regulations in other jurisdictions would negatively impact our revenues or cause us to incur costs to redesign our systems to ensure compliance.

We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar anti-bribery laws, which generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. To the extent we export technical services, data, products or other technology outside of the U.S., we are subject to U.S. and international laws and regulations governing international trade and exports, including, but not limited to, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the Export Administration Regulations and sanctions against embargoed countries.

Many of these laws and regulations are evolving and could be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from country to country and inconsistent with our current policies and practices and in ways that could harm our business. For example, while we are generally not subject to regulations applicable to telecommunications companies, new or different interpretations of laws or regulations could subject us to regulatory supervision. In general, the nature and breadth of laws and regulations governing the internet may increase in the future; accordingly, we are unable to assess the possible effect of compliance with future requirements or whether our compliance with such regulations will materially impact our business, results of operations or financial condition.

For further discussion of how government regulations may affect our business, see the related discussion below in Item 1A. Risk Factors – Financial and Operational Risks – We face risks associated with global operations that could harm our business; – Legal and Regulatory Risks – Evolving privacy regulations could negatively impact our profitability and business operations; and – Legal and Regulatory Risks – Other regulatory developments could negatively impact our business.

Intellectual Property

Our success and ability to compete are dependent on developing and maintaining the proprietary aspects of our technology and operating without infringing on the proprietary rights of others. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright laws and contractual restrictions to protect the proprietary aspects of our technology. As of December 31, 2022, we owned, or had exclusive rights to, over 520 U.S. patents covering our technology as well as patents issued by other countries. Our U.S.-issued patents have terms extendable to various dates between 2023 and 2041. We do not believe that the expiration of any particular patent in the near future would be materially detrimental to our business. We seek to limit disclosure of our intellectual property by requiring employees and consultants with access to our proprietary information to execute confidentiality agreements with us and by restricting access to our source code.

Additional Information

Our internet website address is www.akamai.com. We make available, free of charge, on or through our internet website, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments thereto that we have filed or furnished with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with the Commission. We are not, however, including the information contained on our website, or information that may be accessed through links on our website, as part of, or incorporating such information by reference into, this annual report on Form 10-K.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

The following are important factors that could cause our actual operating results to differ materially from those indicated or suggested by forward-looking statements made in this annual report on Form 10-K or presented elsewhere by management from time to time.

Financial and Operational Risks

We may face slowing revenue growth which could negatively impact our profitability and stock price.

The revenue growth we have enjoyed in recent years may not continue in future periods and could decline, which could negatively impact our profitability and stock price. Our revenue depends on the amount of services we deliver, continued growth in demand for our delivery, compute and security solutions and our ability to maintain the prices we charge for them. In particular, varying levels of the amount of traffic on our network can have a significant impact on our short-term revenue growth rate.

We experienced a significant increase in revenue from our delivery solutions in 2020 due in large part to greater consumption of online media and games during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay-at-home orders across the globe. In 2021 and 2022, our revenue growth from delivery solutions declined as stay-at-home orders were lifted. Numerous factors impact our revenue, traffic and sales growth including:

  • our ability to build on recurring revenue commitments for our security, compute and delivery offerings;

  • our ability to develop new products;

  • the pace of introduction of over-the-top video delivery initiatives by our customers;

  • the popularity of our customers’ streaming offerings as compared to those offered by other companies;

  • factors that impact the pricing and unit pricing we can obtain for our offerings;

  • variation in the popularity of online gaming;

  • customers utilizing their own data centers and implementing solutions that limit or eliminate reliance on third-party providers like us;

  • the adoption of permanent hybrid or work from home policies by employees; and

  • general macroeconomic, regulatory and geopolitical conditions, including the war in Ukraine, and industry pressures.

We have experienced significant growth in revenue from our security and compute solutions in recent years. If we do not increase our industry recognition as a security and compute solutions provider, develop or acquire new solutions in a rapidly-changing environment where security threats are constantly evolving or ensure that our solutions operate effectively and are competitive with products offered by others, our security or compute revenue, or both, may decline.

We are dependent upon the overall economic health of our current and prospective customers and the continued growth and evolution of information technology. We have experienced revenue declines in recent quarters for portions of our business that include our delivery-based solutions and expect this trend to continue because of continued pricing pressure due to competition and fluctuations in traffic growth rates. For example, approximately 1% of our 2021 revenue had been generated from traffic into Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and we experienced a decline in revenue in 2022 related to the war in Ukraine due to a decrease in traffic in these countries. In addition, in 2021 and 2022, some of our customers continued to experience disruptions to their businesses following the emergence of COVID-19 variants. These disruptions or changes in international, national, regional and local economic conditions could adversely affect our business. Any of these circumstances would negatively impact our revenues.

Our ability to increase our overall revenue also depends on many other factors including how well we can:

  • retain existing customers, including by maintaining the levels of existing services they buy and by delivering consistent and quality performance levels;

  • upsell new solutions to existing customers;

  • expand our customer base;

  • develop and sell innovative and appealing new solutions;

  • continue to expand our sales internationally;

  • successfully integrate our recent acquisitions into our business;

  • address potential commoditization of certain of our solutions, which can lead to lower prices and loss of customers to competitors;

  • maintain pricing and make decisions on pricing strategy;

  • successfully manage the sales cycle, including improving the ability of or pace at which our customers or prospects purchase new services and solutions;

  • counteract multi-vendor policies that could cause customers to reduce their reliance on us;

  • handle other competitive threats to our business;

  • adapt to changes in our customer contracting models from a committed revenue structure to a "pay-as-you-go" approach, which would make it easier for customers to stop doing business with us, or from traditional overage billing models to ones that do not incorporate surcharges for usage above committed levels; and

  • manage the impact of changes in general economic conditions, geopolitical conditions, industry pressures, public health issues, natural disasters and public unrest on our ability to sell, market and provide our solutions.

If we are unable to increase revenues, our profitability and stock price could suffer.

Global economic and geopolitical conditions may harm our industry, business and results of operations.

We operate globally and as a result, our business, revenues and profitability are impacted by global macroeconomic conditions. The success of our activities is affected by general economic and market conditions, including, among others, inflation, interest rates, tax rates, economic uncertainty, political instability, warfare, changes in laws, trade barriers, reduced consumer confidence and spending and economic and trade sanctions. The U.S. capital markets experienced and continue to experience extreme volatility and disruption following the global outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Furthermore, inflation rates in the U.S. have recently increased to levels not seen in decades. Such economic volatility could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, and future market disruptions could negatively impact us. These unfavorable economic conditions could increase our operating costs, which could negatively impact our profitability. Geopolitical destabilization and warfare have impacted and could continue to impact global currency exchange rates, resources from our suppliers, and ability to operate or grow our business. For example, as a result of the recent uncertain macroeconomic environment, we have experienced elongated sales cycles with our customers and prospects and customers are delaying purchases of our solutions.

Additionally, we have offices and employees located in regions that historically have and may experience periods of political instability, warfare, changes in laws, trade barriers, and economic and trade sanctions. Adverse conditions in these countries directly affect our operations. As a result, our operations and employees could be disrupted and may not be able to function at full capacity, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and cash flows.

Failure to control expenses could reduce our profitability, which would negatively impact our stock price.

Maintaining or improving our profitability depends both on our ability to increase our revenue, even with the potential challenges discussed above, and limit our expenses. We base our decisions about expense levels and investments on estimates of our future revenue and future anticipated rates of growth; however, many of our expenses are fixed costs for a certain amount of time so it may not be possible to reduce costs in a timely manner or without incurring fees to exit certain obligations early. In addition, we have seen our costs increase and our costs may c

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

Our headquarters is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts where we lease approximately 659,000 square feet, of which approximately 258,000 square feet is currently subleased to third parties. We also have offices in other locations in the United States and other countries, the largest of which are in Santa Clara, California; Bangalore, India; and Krakow, Poland. All of our facilities are leased. We are continuing to evaluate our facility footprint in light of our FlexBase program, including our plans and ability to sublease or terminate excess space. We believe our facilities are sufficient to meet our needs.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

We are party to various litigation matters, governmental proceedings, investigations, claims and disputes that we consider routine and incidental to our business. We do not currently expect the results of any of these matters to have a material effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

PART II

Item 5. Market For Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our common stock, par value $0.01 per share, trades under the symbol “AKAM” on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

As of February 24, 2023, there were 166 holders of record of our common stock.

We have never paid or declared any cash dividends on shares of our common stock or other securities and do not anticipate paying or declaring any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain all future earnings, if any, for use in the operation of our business.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The following is a summary of our repurchases of our common stock in the fourth quarter of 2022 (in thousands, except share and per share data):

Period(1)Total Number of Shares Purchased(2)Average Price Paid per Share(3)Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs(4)Approximate Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet be Purchased Under Plans or Programs(4)
October 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022749,861$83.10749,861$1,307,415
November 1, 2022 – November 30, 2022639,12289.21639,1221,250,398
December 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022665,81187.72665,8111,191,990
Total2,054,794$86.502,054,794

(1)Information is based on settlement dates of repurchase transactions.

(2)Consists of shares of our common stock, par value $0.01 per share.

(3)Includes commissions paid.

(4)Effective January 2022, our board of directors authorized a $1.8 billion share repurchase program through December 2024.

During the year ended December 31, 2022, we repurchased 6.4 million shares of our common stock for an aggregate of $608.0 million.

Item 6. [Reserved]

Not applicable.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations ("MD&A"), should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto that appear elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K. See “Risk Factors” elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K for a discussion of certain risks associated with our business. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements do not include the potential impact of any mergers, acquisitions, divestitures or other events that may be announced after the date hereof.

Overview

We provide solutions to power and protect life online. The key factors that influence our financial success are our ability to build on recurring revenue commitments for our security and performance offerings, increase traffic on our network, continue to develop, scale and successfully bring to market our cloud computing platform and compute-to-edge solutions that meet the needs of professional users and enterprises, effectively manage the prices we charge for our solutions, develop new products and appropriately manage our capital spending and other expenses. The purpose of this discussion and analysis section is to provide material information relevant to an assessment of our financial condition and results of operations from management’s perspective, including to describe and explain key trends, events and other factors that impacted our reported results and that are likely to impact our future performance.

Revenue

For most of our solutions, our customers commit to contracts having terms of a year or longer, which allows us to have a consistent and predictable base level of revenue. In addition to a base level of revenue, we are also dependent on delivery customers, and some cloud computing customers, where usage of our solutions is more variable. As a result, our revenue is impacted by the amount of traffic we serve on our network or the usage of cloud computing services, the rate of adoption of gaming, social media and video platform offerings, the timing and variability of customer-specific one-time events and geopolitical, economic and other developments that impact our customers' businesses. Seasonal variations that impact traffic on our network, such as holiday-related activities, can cause revenue fluctuations from quarter to quarter. Over the longer term, our ability to expand our product portfolio and to effectively manage the prices we charge for our solutions are key factors impacting our revenue growth.

We have observed the following trends related to our revenue in recent years:

  • Increased sales of our security solutions, led by application security solutions and segmentation solutions from our Guardicore acquisition, and more recently, increased sales of our compute solutions primarily attributable to our acquisition of Linode in the first quarter of 2022, have made a significant contribution to revenue growth. During 2022, security and compute revenue represented over half of our total revenue. We plan to continue to invest in these areas with a focus on further enhancing our product portfolios and extending our go-to-market capabilities, particularly in certain markets and through our channel partners.

  • During 2020 and early 2021, we saw a dramatic increase in traffic growth on our network due to the shutdowns and restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While traffic on our network continues to grow as compared to prior years, the rate of traffic growth has decelerated. Our delivery revenue was negatively impacted by the deceleration, which we believe is partly due to the rollback of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions. We expect traffic growth rates in 2023 to continue to be below historical levels as we and other companies manage through a time of economic headwinds and uncertainty.

  • The prices paid by some of our customers have declined in recent years due to competition and contract renewals, which negatively impacts our revenue growth rates. We have been able to mitigate some of the negative impacts to our revenue growth rates by upselling incremental solutions to our existing customers. We are taking steps to try to maintain alignment between customer traffic volumes and unit pricing.

  • Revenue from our international operations has generally been growing at a faster pace in recent years than from our U.S. operations, particularly from cross-selling of incremental solutions. Because we publicly report in U.S. dollars, and due to the strengthening U.S. dollar, our reported revenue results have been negatively impacted during 2022.

  • We have experienced variations in certain types of revenue from quarter to quarter. In particular, we typically experience higher revenue in the fourth quarter of each year for some of our solutions as a result of holiday season activity. In addition, we experience quarterly variations in revenue attributable to, among other things, the nature and timing of software and gaming releases by our customers; whether there are large live sporting or other events or situations that impact the amount of media traffic on our network; the timing of large customer contract renewals; and the frequency and timing of purchases of custom solutions or licensed software.

Expenses

Our level of profitability is also impacted by our expenses, including direct costs to support our revenue such as bandwidth and co-location costs, which includes energy to power our network. We have observed the following trends related to our profitability in recent years:

  • Network bandwidth costs represent a significant portion of our cost of revenue. Historically, we have been able to mitigate increases in these costs by reducing our network bandwidth costs per unit and investing in internal-use software development to improve the performance and efficiency of our network. We will need to continue to effectively manage our bandwidth costs to maintain current levels of profitability.

  • Co-location costs are also a significant portion of our cost of revenue. As we build out our new compute locations to provide us with the ability to scale our platform, we expect to enter into longer term leases that include certain financial commitments in order to achieve more favorable unit economics. The costs of the financial commitments are straight-lined over the life of the lease. We continue to improve our internal-use software and remain disciplined in managing our hardware deployments, particularly for our delivery platform, which enables us to use servers more efficiently. With these efficiencies we have been able to minimize the impact of rising energy costs, particularly in Europe. We expect to continue to scale our network in the future, which will allow us to continue to effectively manage our co-location costs to maintain current levels of profitability.

  • Network build-out and supporting service costs represent another significant portion of our cost of revenue. These costs include maintenance and supporting services incurred as we continue to build-out our compute infrastructure and maintain our global network, and costs of third-party cloud providers used for some of our operations. We have seen these costs increase in recent years, as a result of our network expansion and increased use of third-party cloud services. We expect this trend to continue in the near-term as we invest in our network to support our compute solutions, including migrating from third-party cloud providers to our own cloud solutions. We will need to effectively manage our network build-out and supporting costs to maintain current levels of profitability.

  • Our employees are core to the operations of our business, and payroll and related costs, including stock-based compensation, is one of our largest expenses. It is important to the success of operations that we offer competitive compensation packages. However, we

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Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Interest Rate Risk

Our portfolio of cash equivalents and short- and long-term investments is maintained in a variety of securities, including U.S. government agency obligations, commercial paper and high-quality corporate bonds. The majority of our investments are classified as available-for-sale securities and carried at fair market value with cumulative unrealized gains or losses recorded as a component of accumulated other comprehensive loss within stockholders' equity. A sharp rise in interest rates could have an adverse impact on the fair market value of certain securities in our portfolio. We do not currently hedge our interest rate exposure and do not enter into financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes. If market interest rates were to increase by 100 basis points from December 31, 2022 levels, the fair value of our available-for-sale portfolio would decline by approximately $7.0 million.

In August 2019, we issued $1,150.0 million aggregate principal amount of 0.375% convertible senior notes due 2027. In May 2018, we issued $1,150.0 million aggregate principal amount of 0.125% convertible senior notes due 2025. These notes have a fixed annual interest rate, so they do not give rise to financial or economic interest exposure associated with changes in interest rates. However, the fair value of fixed rate debt instruments fluctuates when interest rates change. Additionally, the fair value can be affected when the market price of our common stock fluctuates. We carry the notes at face value less an unamortized discount on our consolidated balance sheet, and we present the fair value for required disclosure purposes only.

Our exposure to risk for changes in interest rates relates primarily to any borrowings under our 2022 Credit Agreement, which has a variable rate of interest. There were no outstanding borrowings under the 2022 Credit Agreement as of December 31, 2022.

Foreign Currency Risk

Growth in our international operations will incrementally increase our exposure to foreign currency fluctuations as well as other risks typical of international operations that could impact our business, including, but not limited to, differing economic conditions, changes in political climate, differing tax structures and other regulations and restrictions. Due to the strengthening U.S. dollar, our revenue results have been negatively impacted. The strengthening U.S. dollar has the opposite effect on expenses that are denominated in foreign currencies, but only partially offsets the impact to our revenue. A hypothetical 10% strengthening or weakening in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to the foreign currencies in which our revenues and expenses are denominated would not result in a material impact to our consolidated financial statements.

Transaction Exposure

Foreign exchange rate fluctuations may adversely impact our consolidated results of operations as exchange rate fluctuations on transactions denominated in currencies other than functional currencies result in gains and losses that are reflected in our consolidated statements of income. We enter into short-term foreign currency forward contracts to offset foreign exchange gains and losses generated by the re-measurement of certain assets and liabilities recorded in non-functional currencies. Changes in the fair value of these derivatives, as well as re-measurement gains and losses, are recognized in our consolidated statements of income within other income (expense), net. Foreign currency transaction gains and losses from these forward contracts were determined to be immaterial during the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020. We do not enter into derivative financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes.

Translation Exposure

To the extent the U.S. dollar weakens against foreign currencies, the translation of these foreign currency-denominated transactions will result in increased revenue and operating expenses. Conversely, our revenue and operating expenses will decrease when the U.S. dollar strengthens against foreign currencies.

Foreign exchange rate fluctuations may also adversely impact our consolidated financial condition as the assets and liabilities of our foreign operations are translated into U.S. dollars in preparing our consolidated balance sheet. These gains or losses are recorded as a component of accumulated other comprehensive loss within stockholders' equity.

Credit Risk

Concentrations of credit risk with respect to accounts receivable are limited to certain customers to which we make substantial sales. Our customer base consists of a large number of geographically dispersed customers diversified across numerous industries. We believe that our accounts receivable credit risk exposure is limited. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, there was one customer with an accounts receivable balance greater than 10% of our accounts receivable. We believe that at December 31, 2022, the concentration of credit risk related to accounts receivable was insignificant.

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Akamai Technologies, Inc.

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Akamai Technologies, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, and the related consolidated statements of income, of comprehensive income, of stockholders’ equity and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2022, including the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2022 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company did not maintain, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO because a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting existed as of that date related to the Company not designing and maintaining effective controls over the adoption of new accounting standards related to income taxes.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness referred to above is described in Management's Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. We considered this material weakness in determining the nature, timing, and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the December 31, 2022 consolidated financial statements, and our opinion regarding the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting does not affect our opinion on those consolidated financial statements.

Change in Accounting Principle

As discussed in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company changed the manner in which it accounts for convertible instruments in 2022.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in management's report referred to above. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based

on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (i) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (ii) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Valuation of Customer-Related Intangible Assets and Completed Technologies Intangible Assets - Acquisition of Linode Limited Liability Company

As described in Notes 2 and 8 to the consolidated financial statements, in March 2022, the Company acquired Linode Limited Liability Company (“Linode”) for $898.5 million in cash, which resulted in customer-related intangible assets of $84.2 million and completed technologies intangible assets of $70.9 million being recorded. Management applied the multi-period excess earnings method under the income approach to estimate the fair value of the

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Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer (our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, respectively), evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2022. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act") means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2022, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective to provide reasonable assurance due to a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting described below.

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) promulgated under the Exchange Act as a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the company's principal executive and principal financial officers and effected by the company’s board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and

the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that:

  • pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company;

  • provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and

  • provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Our management assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022. Based on this assessment, our management concluded that as of December 31, 2022, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2022, due to a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting described below. In making this assessment, our management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013).

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

A material weakness in internal control over financial reporting related to income taxes was identified in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022. Specifically, the Company did not design and maintain effective controls over the adoption and application of new accounting standards related to income taxes.

This material weakness resulted in immaterial errors to net deferred tax assets and provision for income taxes for the interim periods ended March 31, 2022, June 30, 2022 and September 30, 2022. These immaterial errors also resulted in a revision to previously issued quarterly financial statements for each of these periods. Additionally, this material weakness could result in misstatements of the aforementioned account balances or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the Company's annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

The effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in its report, which is included in Item 8 of this annual report on Form 10-K.

Remediation Plan

The Company’s management, under the oversight of the Audit Committee, is in the process of designing and implementing changes in processes and controls to remediate the material weakness. We expect our remediation plan to include the enhancement of the design and precision of our process for evaluating the adoption and application of new accounting standards in the area of income taxes, including the involvement of external tax advisors, as applicable.

The material weakness will not be considered remediated until management completes its remediation plan and the enhanced controls operate for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that the related controls are effective. The Company will monitor the effectiveness of its remediation plan and will refine its remediation plan as appropriate.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

No change in our internal control over financial reporting occurred during the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2022 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Item 9B. Other Information

None.

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections

Not applicable.

PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

The complete response to this Item regarding the backgrounds of our executive officers and directors and other information required by Items 401, 405 and 407 of Regulation S-K will be contained in our definitive proxy statement for our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders under the sections captioned “Executive Compensation Matters,” “Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” and “Corporate Governance Highlights” and is incorporated by reference herein.

Our executive officers and directors and their positions as of February 28, 2023, are as follows:

NamePosition
F. Thomson LeightonChief Executive Officer, President and Director (Principal Executive Officer)
Edward McGowanExecutive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer (Principal Financial Officer)
Aaron AholaExecutive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Robert BlumofeExecutive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Adam KaronChief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Cloud Technology Group
Kim Salem-JacksonExecutive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Paul JosephExecutive Vice President, Global Sales and Services
Mani SundaramExecutive Vice President and General Manager of the Security Technology Group
Anthony WilliamsExecutive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Sharon BowenDirector
Marianne BrownDirector
Monte FordDirector
Daniel HesseDirector
Tom KillaleaDirector
Jonathan MillerDirector
Madhu RanganathanDirector
Bernardus VerwaayenDirector
William WagnerDirector

We have adopted a written code of business ethics, as amended, that applies to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer and principal accounting officer or persons serving similar functions and all of our other employees and members of our board of directors. The text of our amended code of ethics is available on our website at www.akamai.com. If we amend, or grant a waiver under, our code of business ethics that applies to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer and principal accounting officer, or persons performing similar functions, we intend to post information about such amendment or waiver on our website at www.akamai.com.

Item 11. Executive Compensation

The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders under the sections captioned “Executive Compensation Matters,” “Corporate Governance Highlights,” “Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” and “Director Compensation.”

Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders under the sections captioned “Executive Compensation Matters,” “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” and “Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans.”

Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders under the sections captioned “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions; Code of Ethics; Interest in Annual Meeting Matters,” “Corporate Governance Highlights” and “Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation.”

Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services

The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders under the section captioned “Ratification of Selection of Independent Auditors.”

PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

(a)Documents Filed as Part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K

1.Financial Statements (included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K):

  • Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

  • Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2022 and 2021

  • Consolidated Statements of Income for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020

  • Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020

  • Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020

  • Consolidated Statements of Stockholders' Equity for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020

  • Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

2.Financial Statement Schedules

Financial statements schedules are omitted as they are either not required or the information is otherwise included in the consolidated financial statements.

(b)Exhibits

EXHIBIT INDEX

3.1(A)Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Akamai Technologies, Inc., as amended
3.2(B)Amended and Restated Bylaws of Akamai Technologies, Inc., effective December 13, 2022
4.1(C)Specimen common stock certificate
4.2(D)Indenture (including form of Notes) with respect to Akamai’s 0.125% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025, dated as of May 21, 2018, between Akamai and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee
4.3(E)Indenture (including form of Notes) with respect to the Registrant’s 0.375% Convertible Senior Notes due September 1, 2027, dated as of August 16, 2019, between the Registrant and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee
4.4(F)First Supplemental Indenture with respect to 0.125% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025, dated December 16, 2021, between Akamai Technologies, Inc. and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee
4.5(F)First Supplemental Indenture with respect to 0.375% Convertible Senior Notes due 2027, dated December 16, 2021, between Akamai Technologies, Inc. and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee
4.6(B)Description of Registrant's Securities Registered Under Section 12 of the Exchange Act
10.1(G)@Amended and Restated 1999 Employee Stock Purchase Plan of the Registrant
10.2(H)@Amendment to Amended and Restated 1999 Employee Stock Purchase Plan of the Registrant
10.3(I)@2009 Akamai Technologies, Inc. Stock Incentive Plan
10.4(J)@Akamai Technologies, Inc. Second Amended and Restated 2013 Stock Incentive Plan
10.5(K)Prolexic Technologies, Inc. 2011 Equity Incentive Plan
10.6(L)Cotendo, Inc. Amended and Restated 2008 Stock Plan
10.7(M)Linode Limited Liability Company 2022 RSU Plan
10.8(N)@Form of Restricted Stock Unit Agreement for use under the 2013 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended (time vesting)
10.9@Form of Restricted Stock Unit Agreement for use under the 2013 Stock Incentive Plan (performance vesting)
10.10(O)@Form of Stock Option Agreement for use under the 2013 Stock Incentive Plan
10.11(O)Form of Deferred Stock Unit Agreement for use under the 2013 Stock Incentive Plan
10.12@Form of Performance-Based Vesting Restricted Stock Unit Agreement with Retirement Provision
10.13@Non-Employee Director Compensation Plan
10.14(N)@Form of Restricted Stock Unit Agreement for use under the 2013 Stock Incentive Plan (2019)
10.15(P)@Form Executive Bonus Plan
10.16(Q)@Akamai Technologies, Inc. Executive Severance Pay Plan, as amended
10.17(R)@Form of Change in Control and Severance Agreement
10.18(S)@Akamai Technologies, Inc. Policy on Departing Director Compensation
10.19(T)@Akamai Technologies, Inc. U.S. Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Plan
10.20(U)@Employment Letter Agreement between the Registrant and F. Thomson Leighton dated February 25, 2013
10.21(R)@Amendment to Employment Letter Agreement between the Registrant and F. Thomson Leighton dated November 12, 2015
10.22(V)Indenture of Lease for 145 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts dated November 7, 2016
10.23(V)Must-Take Premises and Right of First Offer Agreement among the Registrant, Boston Properties Limited Partnership and the Trustees of Ten Cambridge Center Trust dated November 7, 2016
10.24(W)150 Broadway Real Property Lease Dated December 20, 2017
10.25(X)†Exclusive Patent and Non-Exclusive Copyright License Agreement, dated as of October 26, 1998, between the Registrant and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
10.26(Y)Credit Agreement by and among Akamai Technologies, Inc., the financial institutions identified therein as lenders and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent, dated November 22, 2022
10.27(D)Form of Call Option Confirmation between Akamai and each Option Counterparty
10.28(D)Form of Warrant Confirmation between Akamai and each Option Counterparty
10.29(E)Form of Call Option Confirmation between the Registrant and each Option Counterparty
10.30(E)Form of Warrant Confirmation between the Registrant and each Option Counterparty
21.1Subsidiaries of the Registrant
23.1Consent of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
31.1Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Rule 13a- 14(a)/Rule 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
31.2Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Rule 13a- 14(a)/Rule 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
32.1Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
32.2Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
101.INSInline XBRL Instance Document – The instance document does not appear in the interactive data file because its XBRL tags are embedded within the inline XBRL document.*
101.SCHInline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document*
101.CALInline XBRL Taxonomy Calculation Linkbase Document*
101.DEFInline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document*
101.LABInline XBRL Taxonomy Label Linkbase Document*
101.PREInline XBRL Taxonomy Presentation Linkbase Document*
104Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101.INS)

(A)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 18884226) filed with the Commission on June 6, 2018.
(B)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Annual Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 221467934) filed with the Commission on December 16, 2022.
(C)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-85679, 99727819), as amended, filed with the Commission on October 13, 1999.
(D)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 18852548) filed with the Commission on May 22, 2018.
(E)Incorporated by reference to the Registration's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 191033874) filed with the Commission on August 16, 2019.
(F)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Annual Report Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 211497782) filed with the Commission on December 16, 2021.
(G)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Annual Report on Form 10-K (File No. 000-27275, 06691330) filed with the Commission on March 16, 2006.
(H)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (File No. 000-27275, 08823347) filed with the Commission on May 12, 2008.
(I)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 11865051) filed with the Commission on May 23, 2011.
(J)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 22922830) filed with the Commission on May 13, 2022.
(K)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-8 (File No. 333-194278, 14660564) filed with the Commission on March 3, 2014.
(L)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed (File No. 333-180088, 12689764) filed with the Commission on March 14, 2012.
(M)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed with the Commission on March 21, 2022.
(N)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (File No. 000-27275, 19810440) filed with the Commission on May 9, 2019.
(O)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (File No. 000-27275, 131025074) filed with the Commission on August 9, 2013.
(P)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 23668192) filed with the Commission on February 24, 2023.
(Q)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 191132693) filed with the Commission on October 2, 2019.
(R)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 22680595) filed with the Commission on February 25, 2022.
(S)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Annual Report on form 10-K (File No. 000-27275, 17647667) filed with the Commission on February 28, 2017.
(T)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (File No. 000-27275, 15850176) filed with the Commission on May 11, 2015.
(U)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Annual Report on Form 10-K (File No. 000-27275, 13657899) filed with the Commission on March 1, 2013.
(V)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 161988699) filed with the Commission on November 10, 2016.
(W)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Annual Report on Form 10-K (File No. 000-27275, 18654889) filed with the Commission on March 1, 2018.
(X)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant's Registration Statement on Form S-1/A filed with the Commission on October 28, 1999.
(Y)Incorporated by reference to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 000-27275, 221416292) filed with the Commission on November 23, 2022.

@Management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement filed as an exhibit to this Annual Report on Form 10-K pursuant to Item 15(b) of this Annual Report.
†Confidential Treatment has been granted as to certain portions of this Exhibit. Such portions have been omitted and filed separately with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
*Submitted electronically herewith.
(c)Not applicable.

Item 16. Form 10-K Summary

None.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

February 28, 2023AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
By:/s/ EDWARD MCGOWAN
Edward McGowan Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

SignatureTitleDate
/s/ F. THOMSON LEIGHTONChief Executive Officer, President and Director (Principal Executive Officer)February 28, 2023
F. Thomson Leighton
/s/ EDWARD MCGOWANExecutive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer (Principal Financial Officer)February 28, 2023
Edward McGowan
/s/ LAURA HOWELLChief Accounting Officer (Principal Accounting Officer)February 28, 2023
Laura Howell
/s/ SHARON Y. BOWENDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Sharon Y. Bowen
/s/ MARIANNE C. BROWNDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Marianne C. Brown
/s/ MONTE E. FORDDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Monte E. Ford
/s/ DANIEL R. HESSEDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Daniel R. Hesse
/s/ PETER T. KILLALEADirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Peter T. Killalea
/s/ JONATHAN F. MILLERDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Jonathan F. Miller
/s/ MADHU RANGANATHANDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Madhu Ranganathan
/s/ BERNARDUS VERWAAYENDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
Bernardus Verwaayen
/s/ WILLIAM R. WAGNERDirectorFebruary 28, 2023
William R. Wagner