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.
AKAMAkamai Technologies
Since 1998, Akamai has developed and provided solutions for global enterprises to build, secure and accelerate their applications and digital experiences. 10-K, Item 1
- Employees
- 11,000
- Headquarters
- Cambridge, MA
- Next results
- around Feb 18, 2027
10-K 0001086222-26-000022 (2026-02-20) vs 10-K 0001086222-25-000028 (2025-02-24)
| Section | Compared text | Words now | Changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Risk Factors | Item 1A | 13,271 | 23.2% |
| MD&A | Item 7 | 11,585 | 18.0% |
| Legal Proceedings | Item 3, via Note 13 – Commitments and Contingencies | 450 | 10.9% |
| Accounting Policies | Item 8, Note 2 – Summary of Significant Accounting Policies | 5,082 | 9.4% |
The redline: what was cut and what was added
In each section, the paragraph that changed most, 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 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.
Quiet changes are sentences kept from last year with one to four words changed, at least one of them a hedge, a modal or a qualifier
(may, could, will, not, significant, material…). A year or date rolling forward is not counted.
The full word list
adverse, adversely, all, although, anticipate, anticipates, any, approximately, believe, believes, can, cannot, certain, could, expect, expects, generally, however, if, intend, intends, largely, likely, many, material, materially, may, might, most, must, never, no, not, possible, primarily, probable, should, significant, significantly, some, substantial, substantially, unlikely, will, would
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.
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.
RemovedRisk Factors
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RewordedRisk Factors
RewordedRisk Factors
The success of our activities is affected by general economic economic, political and market conditions, including, among others, including inflation, foreign exchange rates, interest rates, tax rates, economic uncertainty, uncertainty or contraction, political instability, warfare, warfare or acts of terrorism, public health crises, changes in laws, policy - and regulatory-related changes resulting from U.S. government actions and regulatory priorities, trade barriers, barriers including announced or expected tariffs, changes in export controls, the actual or perceived failure or financial difficulties of financial institutions, reduced consumer confidence and spending and economic and trade sanctions.
RewordedRisk Factors
These attempts take a variety of forms, including Distributed Denial of Service ("DDoS") DDoS attacks, infrastructure attacks, botnets, malicious file uploads, computer malware, application abuse, credential abuse, social engineering, engineering (including phishing attacks), ransomware, bugs, viruses, worms and malicious software programs. programs, business email compromises, misuse of employee credentials and wrongful conduct by insider employees or vendors, all of which may be enhanced or facilitated by AI.
RewordedRisk Factors
As of the date of this report, we had total principal amount of $1,150.0 million of convertible senior notes outstanding due in 2025, total principal amount of $1,150.0 million of convertible senior notes outstanding due in 2027 and 2027, total principal amount of $1,265.0 million of convertible senior notes outstanding due in 2029. 2029 and total principal amount of $1,725.0 million of convertible senior notes outstanding due in 2033.
RewordedRisk Factors
For example, in 2024, 2025, the strength weakening of the U.S. dollar had a positive impact on our revenue and increased our overall profitability, but if this dynamic reverses, it would have a negative impact on our revenue and a positive impact on our operating expenses. profitability.
RewordedRisk Factors
We utilize third-party technology software, services and other technology to operate critical functions of our business, including the integration of certain of these technologies into our network, products and services. services, and in some cases our products and services include features designed to enable our customers and partners to write and execute their own software within our platform.
RewordedRisk Factors
U.S. and international laws and regulations that apply to the internet related to, among other things, internet, including content liability, security requirements, law enforcement access to information, critical infrastructure, net neutrality, so-called "fair share" or internet content taxes, international data transfer restrictions, sanctions, export controls and controls, restrictions on social media or other platforms, applications or content content, as well as developing regulatory concerns related to digital or cloud sovereignty, could pose risks to our revenues, intellectual property and customer relationships as well as and could increase expenses or create other disadvantages to our business.
RewordedRisk Factors
For example, approximately six percent of our global employees are located in Israel Israel, and some of our employees have in the past been mobilized as members of impacted by the Israeli military reserves. Israel-Hamas war or other hostilities in and around or involving Israel.
RewordedRisk Factors
If we are unable to efficiently and cost-effectively fix errors or other problems that we identify and improve the quality of our solutions or systems, or if there are unidentified errors that allow persons to improperly access our services or systems, we could experience litigation, the need to issue credits 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.
RewordedRisk Factors
As a result, some competitors have in the past and may in the future be able to: develop superior products or services; leverage better name recognition, particularly in the security and compute cloud computing markets; enter new markets more easily or better manage the impact of changes in general economic conditions, geopolitical conditions and industry pressures; gain greater market acceptance for their products and services; enter into long-term contracts with our potential customers; increase their points of presence and proximity to enterprise data centers and end users faster than us; secure server components (including memory), co-location space and power on preferred terms and with priority access, which can constrain industry supply and increase our costs; expand their offerings more efficiently and more rapidly; bundle their products that are competitive with ours with other solutions they offer in a way that makes our offerings less appealing to, or more costly for, current and potential customers; more quickly adapt to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements; take advantage of acquisition, investment and other opportunities more readily; offer lower prices than ours, including at levels that may not be profitable for us to match; spend more money on the promotion, marketing and sales of their products and services; offer higher salaries to talented professionals which may impact our ability to hire or retain engineering and other personnel; and implement shorter sales cycles with customers and prospects.
RewordedRisk Factors
Our ability to generate revenue in our compute business is dependent cloud computing solutions depends on our ability to successfully continue building our compute platform, developing AI capabilities, attract a customer base that has traditionally partnered with more established companies in the compute cloud computing industry, and develop effective, price competitive and attractive solutions. solutions and increase prices without reducing customer adoption, usage or retention.
RewordedRisk Factors
This is particularly true with respect to our compute AI and cloud computing solutions, as a small number of very large competitors have established themselves as leaders incumbents in the compute business. these industries and exert significant purchasing power and priority access to servers, memory, co-location capacity and power.
Quiet changesRisk Factors
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.
RemovedMD&A
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RewordedMD&A
Cost of revenue (exclusive of amortization of acquired intangible assets shown below) 40.6 39.6 38.3 41 41 40 Research and development 11.8 10.7 10.8 12 12 11 Sales and marketing 14.0 14.0 13.9 14 14 14 General and administrative 15.6 15.8 16.2 16 16 16 Amortization of acquired intangible assets 2.3 1.8 1.8 3 2 2 Restructuring charge 2.4 1.5 0.4 1 2 1 Total costs and operating expenses 86.7 83.4 81.4 (1) 87 87 83 Income from operations 13.4 16.6 18.6 (1) 13 13 17 Interest and marketable securities income, net 2.5 1.2 0.1 2 3 1 Interest expense (0.7) (0.5) (0.3) (1) (1) — Other expense, net (0.5) (0.3) (0.3) — — — Income before provision for income taxes 14.7 17.0 18.1 (1) 14 15 17 Provision for income taxes (2.1) (2.8) (3.5) (4) (2) (3) Gain (loss) from equity method investment — — (0.2) — Net income 12.7 (1) 11 % 14.2 13 % 14.4% 14%
RewordedMD&A
The increases in our revenue in 2025 as compared to 2024, and 2024 as compared to 2023, and 2023 as compared to 2022, was were primarily the result of continued growth in sales of our security and compute cloud computing solutions, partially offset by a decline in revenue from our delivery solutions and the acquisition due to downward pricing of Linode in March 2022 which contributed to the growth in our compute solutions. renewals.
RewordedMD&A
The increase decrease in cash used in financing activities in 2024 2025 as compared to 2023 2024 was primarily due to the net proceeds received in 2023 from our convertible senior notes due 2029 that did not recur in 2024 activity and increased decreased employee taxes paid in 2024 related to vesting of stock awards 2025 driven by the shift in our performance-based compensation program from cash-based to stock-based and an increase a reduction in stock price.
RewordedMD&A
The increase increases in security solutions revenue for 2025 as compared to 2024, and 2024 as compared to 2023, and 2023 as compared to 2022, was were due to growth of sales in a number of key products in our security solutions portfolio, including our segmentation and API security, web application solutions, and the growth in certain products that combine elements of our security and delivery offerings to provide robust security Guardicore segmentation solutions.
RewordedMD&A
The increase in sales and marketing expenses for 2023 2025 as compared to 2022 2024 was primarily due to higher payroll and related costs, including stock-based compensation, compensation as a result of annual merit increases, headcount growth and the increased expected achievement of our performance-based compensation plans and other expenses due a shift in our employer 401(k) match program from cash-based to increased travel expenses associated with customer meetings and sales events. stock-based, effective in 2025.
RewordedMD&A
The decrease increase in the provision for income taxes for 2024 2025 as compared to 2023 2024 was mainly due to a shortfall in the tax benefit related to stock-based compensation, the benefit from an intercompany sale of intellectual property in 2024, an increase 2024 that did not recur in the excess 2025, revaluation of deferred tax benefit related to stock-based compensation, lower profitability assets and an increase a decrease in the benefit of U.S. federal and state research and development credits.
RewordedMD&A
Amortization of acquired intangible assets 0.76 0.60 0.43 0.40 Stock-based compensation 3.12 2.55 2.11 1.35 Amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation and capitalized interest expense 0.35 0.28 0.21 0.20 Restructuring charge 0.39 0.62 0.36 0.08 Acquisition-related costs 0.02 0.05 0.09 0.18 Legal settlements 0.03 0.02 — — Amortization of debt issuance costs 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.03 Loss (gain) (Gain) loss on cost method investments investments, net (0.06) 0.03 — 0.05 (Gain) loss Gain from equity method investment — — (0.01) 0.05 Income tax effect of above non-GAAP adjustments and certain discrete tax items (0.61) (1.00) (0.58) (0.27) Adjustment for shares (1) — 0.03 0.02 0.02 Non-GAAP net income per diluted share (2) $ 7.12 $ 6.48 $ 6.20 $ 5.37 Shares used in GAAP per diluted share calculations 147,023 154,346 155,397 160,467 Impact of benefit from note hedge transactions (1) — (744) (574) (720) Shares used in non-GAAP per diluted share calculations (1) 147,023 153,602 154,823 159,747
RewordedMD&A
As we continue to build out our new compute locations to provide us with the ability to scale our platform, we have entered into, and expect experienced a significant increase in our co-location costs due to continue to enter into, longer term leases that include certain financial commitments in order to achieve more favorable unit economics. the market dynamics driven by the hyperscalers.
RewordedMD&A
RewordedMD&A
The increase in general and administrative expenses for 2024 as compared to 2023 was primarily due to higher payroll and related costs costs, including stock-based compensation, as a result of annual merit increases, an increase increases and the shift in stock-based compensation as a result of the timing of our performance-based equity award grants and an increase in other expenses related to professional service fees to support our business. compensation.
RewordedMD&A
For the years year ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, 2025, our effective income tax rate was lower higher than the federal statutory tax rate due to foreign income taxed at lower rates non-deductible stock-based compensation, revaluation of deferred tax assets and a shortfall in the tax benefit of U.S. federal, state and foreign research and development related to stock-
RewordedMD&A
The increase in sales research and marketing development expenses for 2023 2025 as compared to 2022 2024 was primarily due to higher payroll and related costs, including stock-based compensation, as a result of headcount growth from our strategic initiatives, annual merit increases, headcount growth increases and the increased expected achievement of our performance-based compensation plans and other expenses due to increased travel expenses associated with customer meetings and sales events. plans.
Quiet changesMD&A
We have seen some of these costs increase in recent years as a result of our network expansion, and particularly the build out of our compute platform.
Quiet changesMD&A
The restructuring charge in 2024 was primarily driven by management's commitment to an action with the primary intent to redeploy resources to support our strategic investments and as a result of our completed acquisitions.
Quiet changesMD&A
During these periods, our average stock price was in excess of $95.10, which is the initial conversion price of our convertible senior notes due which matured in May 2025.
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