AddedRisk Factors
to customers, loss of revenue and market share, damage to our reputation, diversion of management attention, increased expenses, reduced profitability and other negative consequences which could harm our business.
The 10-K against last year's
177 changes: 20 added, 14 removed, 139 reworded, 4 quiet changes
10-K 0001086222-26-000022 (2026-02-20) vs 10-K 0001086222-25-000028 (2025-02-24)
The redline
The paragraph that changed most in each section
Marked against last year's 10-K:
cut words struck through, new words highlighted and underlined.
Risk Factors 300 words changed in this paragraph; it is 48% similar to last year's version.
Regulations have also been enacted or proposed in a number of countries that limit the delivery of certain types of content into those countries. Enactment and expansion of such laws and regulations would negatively impact our revenues. For example, restrictions were adopted in India in 2020 prohibiting access to identified Chinese-owned applications which caused a reduction in revenue to us. In addition, in April 2024, the U.S. government passed legislation that enacted the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act ("PAFACA"), which, among other things, prohibited the provision of certain types of services to a Chinese application if the application was not sold to a neutral third party by January 19, 2025. The Chinese application was not sold President of the United States subsequently signed a series of Executive Orders delaying enforcement of the legislation, culminating with an Executive Order issued on September 25, 2025, which declared that a proposed sale of the Chinese-owned application's U.S. operations to a neutral third party by new joint-venture company complied with PAFACA's divestiture requirements and extended non-enforcement of PAFACA until January 23, 2026. These Executive Orders further directed the January 19th deadline, but President Trump subsequently signed Department of Justice to issue guidance and letters stating there was no violation and no liability for conduct during the PAFACA non-enforcement periods, resulting in Akamai's receipt of an executive order instructing the U.S. Attorney General to not take any action to enforce the passed legislation for a period of 75 days from January 20, 2025. The Attorney General has since determined determination that our provision of Akamai services to this customer has had not violated the law and that we can could continue providing services as contemplated by the Executive Order Orders without violating the law and without incurring any legal liability. In the past year, this customer has taken steps to lower costs and reduce reliance on U.S. providers by optimizing its platform, including using a DIY component. This has negatively impacted revenue growth rates in 2024, and we expect revenue from this customer to decline over the next few years, regardless of whether this legislation is enforced or takes effect. It is difficult to predict whether the passed legislation will ultimately be enforced and whether any future judicial challenges brought against the Executive Order will be successful. Even though President Trump has extended the enforcement deadline for a ban on the Chinese application, there is no assurance that we will not be exposed to liability and we may be exposed to significant fines, litigation, indemnification claims, negative publicity, reputational harm, diversion of management attention, interruptions in our operations, financial loss and other similar harms by continuing to provide services to the Chinese application.
Source: Item 1A, 10-K 0001086222-26-000022 vs Item 1A, 10-K 0001086222-25-000028
MD&A 163 words changed in this paragraph; it is 49% similar to last year's version.
We have entered into operating leases for real estate assets related to office space and co-location assets related to space or racks at co-location facilities and related equipment for our servers and other networking equipment. As of December 31, 2024 the total obligation under these agreements was $1,231.6 million, of which $263.1 million is payable in the next 12 months. We In addition, we have also executed additional operating leases that will commence in 2025 for $197.0 million. Additionally, during the fourth quarter of 2024, we entered into an operating lease with a data center operator for space in the Virginia area that is expected we contemporaneously subleased to commence beginning in the third quarter of 2025. The lease is for a datacenter with gross payments of approximately $750.0 million over a 12 year lease term. We have contemporaneously entered into a sublease with the an affiliate of a large social media customer for the use customer. A portion of the space on substantially similar terms. The operating at the subleased data center commenced in 2025, with the remainder of the space commencing in January 2026. Both the lease costs payments and associated sublease income will be recorded as general and administrative expense in the consolidated statements of income and are expected to substantially offset each other. The operating lease terms and maturities are discussed more fully in Note 12 to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K.
Source: Item 7, 10-K 0001086222-26-000022 vs Item 7, 10-K 0001086222-25-000028
Accounting Policies 96 words changed in this paragraph; it is 42% similar to last year's version.
In December 2023, September 2025, the FASB issued guidance which modernizes the accounting for internal-use software by removing all references to improve income tax disclosures, primarily through enhanced disclosures software development stages given the evolution of software development. The targeted improvements aim to increase the operability of the recognition guidance for internal-use software. The guidance also seeks to clarify the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid, in addition to the modification or elimination of other disclosures. disclosure requirements for internal-use software. This guidance will be effective for the Company's annual period ending December 31, 2025 Company on January 1, 2028, and is to be applied prospectively, modified prospectively with the option to adopt or retrospectively. The Company is evaluating the potential impact the update will have of adopting this guidance on its disclosures. consolidated financial statements.
Source: Item 8, Note 2 – Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, 10-K 0001086222-26-000022 vs Item 8, Note 2 – Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, 10-K 0001086222-25-000028
Legal Proceedings 49 words changed in this paragraph; it is 63% similar to last year's version.
The Company has agreed to indemnify each of its officers and directors, or employees who serve as officers or directors of its subsidiaries at management's request, during his or her lifetime for certain events or occurrences that happen by reason of the fact that the officer or director is or was or has agreed to serve as an officer or director of the Company. The Company has director and officer insurance policies that may limit its exposure and may enable the Company to recover a portion of certain future amounts paid.
Source: Item 3, via Note 13 – Commitments and Contingencies, 10-K 0001086222-26-000022 vs Item 3, via Note 13 – Commitments and Contingencies, 10-K 0001086222-25-000028
Every change, by type
Sentences and paragraphs added, removed or reworded
Sentences and paragraphs of AKAM's Risk Factors and MD&A, 10-K 2026-02-20 against 10-K 2025-02-24. Each links to the text at sec.gov.
AddedRisk Factors
Our contracts may not contain limitations of liability, and even where they do, there can be no assurance that such terms are sufficient to protect us from liabilities, damages, or claims related to our privacy and data security obligations. Further,
AddedRisk Factors
although we maintain cyber liability insurance, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities related to any experienced cybersecurity incident or breach.
AddedRisk Factors
A significant portion of our hiring, new customers and revenue growth in recent years has been attributable to our business outside the U.S. Our operations in international countries subject us to risks that may increase our costs, impact our financial results, disrupt our operations or make our operations less efficient and require significant management attention. These risks
AddedRisk Factors
employee distraction and unanticipated employee turnover, which could adversely affect our operating results.
AddedRisk Factors
and therefore are more costly to comply with. Such contracts are also subject to audits and investigations that could result in civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including contract termination, fee refunds, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines and suspensions or debarment from future government business.
AddedRisk Factors
and suitability of data sets are all potential issues that could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results.
AddedRisk Factors
Certain jurisdictions are adopting or tightening data localization and data residency requirements that restrict where customer or employee data may be stored, processed, accessed or encrypted. In the U.S., regulators are increasingly scrutinizing and restricting certain personal data transfers and transactions involving foreign countries. For example, the Department of Justice’s January 8, 2025, rule on “Preventing Access to U.S. Sensitive Personal Data and Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern or Covered Persons,” prohibits data brokerage transactions involving certain sensitive personal data categories to countries of concern, including China. The regulations also restrict certain investment agreements, employment agreements and vendor agreements involving such data and countries of concern, absent specified cybersecurity controls.
Show the other 12
AddedRisk Factors
Some jurisdictions, particularly the European Union (the "EU"), are also exploring broader “digital sovereignty” frameworks placing operational, ownership, and control requirements that must be met to provide services to certain markets or sectors. These measures have gathered steam over the past year based on the emergence of geopolitical tensions, including between the US and Europe. Together with limits on cross‑border data transfers and government access or audit obligations, they may prevent us from providing services in certain cases, or require us to provide in‑country or region‑specific hosting, rely on designated local partners, modify or limit features, or maintain segregated environments and duplicative infrastructure, routing, logging and support models. These developments could decrease our addressable market, increase our costs and complexity, lengthen sales cycles, limit the functionality or performance of our services in some markets and reduce economies of scale. These risks may accelerate or vary by region due to geopolitical factors, including changes in sanctions, export or import controls, tariffs and other trade restrictions, or regional conflicts.
AddedRisk Factors
On January 22, 2026, the divestiture was finalized, and a new U.S.-based joint venture assumed operation of the U.S. application. Although the divestiture has been completed, certain aspects of the transaction could be subject to future governmental review or litigation. Further, it is difficult to predict whether any future legislative, regulatory or judicial actions, including those that may be brought against the Executive Orders, will be successful. There is no assurance that we will not be exposed to liability, and we may face significant fines, litigation, indemnification claims, negative publicity, reputational harm, diversion of management attention, interruptions in our operations, financial loss and other similar harms by continuing to provide services to this customer.
AddedMD&A
We acquired Fermyon in November 2025. With this acquisition we plan to deepen the integration between the edge functions platform and our performance and security products. The resulting cloud computing platform aims to make it even faster and easier for developers to build, deploy and secure applications at the edge that outperform cloud-native applications, for less money, the same way they can in core data centers today.
AddedMD&A
Revenue and earnings generated from these acquisitions are included in our financial results since the dates of the acquisitions, but were not material. However, delivery revenue was positively impacted by customer contracts acquired from Edgio, Lumen and Stackpath. Additionally, of note, we added approximately 200 employees from the acquisition of Noname Security.
AddedMD&A
•network build-out and supporting services, particularly due to our partner program costs related to our cloud computing solutions; and
AddedMD&A
These increases were partially offset by lower bandwidth fees, resulting from improved pricing and operational efficiencies on our network.
AddedMD&A
In July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ("OBBBA") was enacted into law. The OBBBA includes significant provisions, such as the permanent extension of certain expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, modifications to the international tax framework and the restoration of favorable tax treatment for certain business provisions. The legislation has multiple effective dates, with certain provisions effective in 2025 and others to be implemented through 2027. The OBBBA did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements for the annual period ending December 31, 2025.
AddedMD&A
Cash paid for business acquisitions, net of cash acquired $ (55,112) $ (434,066) $ (106,171)
AddedMD&A
Purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of internal-use software development costs (819,500) (685,267) (730,040)
AddedMD&A
•a decrease in net marketable securities activity, primarily due to higher purchases compared to maturities and sales, which resulted from net proceeds from our convertible senior notes activities.
AddedMD&A
These decreases were partially offset by higher purchases of property and equipment related to network expansion, primarily for our compute infrastructure.
AddedMD&A
In May 2025, we issued $1,725.0 million in principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2033 and entered into related convertible note hedge and warrant transactions. We intend to use a portion of the net proceeds to repay at maturity our $1,150.0 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due in 2027. Additionally, we used a portion of the net proceeds to repay $250.0 million in borrowings made in April 2025 under our revolving credit agreement entered into in November 2022 ("2022 Credit Agreement") and for share repurchases.