Prospectus Summary
This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. Before deciding whether to buy shares of our common stock, you should read this summary and the more detailed information in this prospectus, including our financial statements and related notes and especially the discussion of the risks of investing in our common stock under the heading, “Risk Factors.”
Limelight Networks, Inc.
Limelight Networks is a leading provider of high-performance content delivery network services. We digitally deliver content for traditional and emerging media companies, or content providers, including businesses operating in the television, music, radio, newspaper, magazine, movie, videogame and software industries. Using Limelight’s content delivery network, or CDN, content providers are able to provide their end-users with a high-quality media experience for rich media content, including video, music, games, software and social media.
As consumer demand for media content over the Internet has increased, and as enabling technologies such as broadband access to the Internet have proliferated, consumption of rich media content has become increasingly important to Internet end-users and therefore to the content providers that serve them. eMarketer estimates that at the end of 2006, nearly 60% of all Internet users regularly watched videos online, and approximately 80% are expected to do so by the end of 2010. We developed our services and architected our network specifically to meet the unique demands content providers face in delivering rich media content to large audiences of demanding Internet end-users. Our comprehensive solution delivers content providers a high-quality, highly scalable, highly reliable offering at a low cost. As of February 2007, over 700 customers have chosen Limelight Networks to deliver the high-quality media experiences their consumers seek online.
Content providers seeking to deliver rich media content to end-users via the Internet have two primary alternatives: deliver content using basic Internet connectivity or utilize a CDN. The basic Internet, which is a complex network of networks, is effective for delivering many types of content but can be ineffective for delivering rich media content with satisfactory performance. Internet protocols are designed to reliably transport data packets, but the packets can be lost or delayed in transit. When data packets are lost or delayed during the delivery of rich media content, the result is noticeable to users because playback is interrupted. This interruption causes songs to skip, videos to freeze and downloads to be slower than acceptable for demanding consumers. This lack of performance and its dramatic effect on user experience make the delivery of rich media content via the basic Internet extremely challenging.
In response to this challenge, some content providers have chosen to invest significant capital to build the infrastructure of servers, storage and networks necessary to bypass, as much as possible, the public Internet. The substantial capital outlay and the development of the expertise and other technical resources required to manage such a complex infrastructure can be time-consuming and prohibitively expensive for all but the largest companies. As a result, many companies have chosen to rely on one or more CDNs for the delivery of their content. Most early CDNs were built and configured to deliver the objects typically found in basic web sites such as photos or graphics, but were not configured for the large files and large content libraries associated with today’s rich media.
Benefits of our Solution to Customers
We have designed our CDN solution specifically to handle the demanding requirements of delivering rich media content over the Internet. Our solution enables content providers to provide their end-users with high-quality experiences across any digital media type, content library size or audience scale without expending the capital and developing the expertise needed to build and manage their own networks. Our CDN solution delivers the following benefits to our customers:
End box 1 END LOGICAL PAGE PAGEBREAK BEGIN LOGICAL PAGE Begin box 1High Quality User Experience
We enable users to receive their requested content such as movies, television shows, games, songs and software downloads in a timely manner and to enjoy a high-quality media experience. We accomplish this, in part, by delivering content from servers that can be closer to users than a content provider’s own servers, and by delivering more than half of our content volume directly to a user’s access network, bypassing much of the congestion typically experienced in the public Internet. We also operate a dedicated high-speed (10 gigabits per second) backbone that enables us to move content quickly between locations on our network.
High Scalability Across Media Type, Library Size, and Audience Size
Our current global delivery capability exceeds 1 terabit per second. This capacity allows us to support traffic spikes associated with special one-time or unexpected events. Our highly scalable infrastructure also enables us to maintain our performance levels as our customers’ audiences grow, media file sizes increase and content libraries expand.
High Reliability
Our distributed CDN architecture, managed by our proprietary software, seamlessly and automatically responds in real time to network and data center outages. Each of our content delivery network locations connects to multiple Internet backbone and broadband Internet service provider networks, and has multiple redundant servers, enabling us to continue serving content even if a particular network connection or server fails.
Comprehensive Solution
We can begin delivery services for a new customer within days of a customer’s placement of an order. We also support both download and streaming delivery in a broad variety of formats, including Adobe Flash, MP3 audio, QuickTime, RealNetworks RealPlayer and Windows Media. In addition, our value-added services include a web-based customer portal that provides management information reports and a download manager that simplifies the downloading process for the end-user. Lastly, we offer custom services to address customers’ non-standard delivery needs.
Low Content Delivery Costs
Our content delivery services enable customers to avoid the substantial upfront and ongoing capital requirements of upgrading and maintaining their data centers and networks in order to deliver media content themselves. Customers benefit from the lower cost associated with the delivery of content using our infrastructure, which is designed specifically for delivering rich media content, and the expertise we have acquired from serving over 700 customers.
Our Strategy
Our strategic goal is to be the provider of choice in the delivery of rich media content. Key elements of our strategy include:
End box 1 END LOGICAL PAGE PAGEBREAK BEGIN LOGICAL PAGE Begin box 1Risks Affecting Us
There are numerous risks and uncertainties that may affect our financial and operating performance and our growth. You should carefully consider all of the risks discussed in “Risk Factors,” which begins on page 8, before investing in our common stock. These risks include the following:
Corporate Information
We were formed as an Arizona limited liability company, Limelight Networks, LLC, in June 2001 and converted into a Delaware corporation, Limelight Networks, Inc., in August 2003. Our principal executive offices are located at 2220 W. 14th Street, Tempe, Arizona 85281, and our telephone number is (602) 850-5000. Our website address is www.limelightnetworks.com. The information on, or accessible through, our website is not part of this prospectus. References in this prospectus to “Limelight Networks,” “Limelight,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Limelight Networks, Inc. and its subsidiaries and predecessor entity.
Limelight Networks and the Limelight Networks logo are trademarks of Limelight Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks and trade names appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners.
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