I can't think of many cases where an acquisition served customers well. Often the distinctive things that make a company appealing are lost as costs are slashed

I can't think of many cases where an acquisition served customers well. Often the distinctive things that make a company appealing are lost as costs are slashed, good staff flee and the parent tries to capture customers into their existing products and services. My impression of Akamai was always if you have to ask the price then you can't afford it. It seems an odd match. I guess the thinking is that they both have to compete with AWS and provide a one stop shop which is probably true to some extent but certainly not for a customer like me. I have been a small Linode customer off and on for over 15 years and in that time they have had ups and downs, made very public mistakes and learned from them. Overall they generally supplied a competitive product and decent customer service. So I hope this works out well for all involved. If not there is lots of competition still in this space.