Fourth quarter highlights

• Revenue of $928 million, up 2% year-over-year and up 6% when adjusted for foreign exchange*
• Security and compute revenue represented 55% of total revenue in the fourth quarter and grew 18% year-over-year and 22% when adjusted for foreign exchange*
• GAAP EPS of $0.82, down 15% year-over-year and down 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange*, and non-GAAP EPS* of $1.37, down 8% year-over-year and down 2% when adjusted for foreign exchange*

Full-year highlights

• Revenue of $3.617 billion, up 4% year-over-year and up 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange*
• Security and compute revenue represented 54% of total revenue in 2022 and grew 23% year-over-year and 27% when adjusted for foreign exchange*
• GAAP EPS of $3.26, down 17% year-over-year and down 9% when adjusted for foreign exchange*, and non-GAAP EPS* of $5.37, down 6% year-over-year and down 1% when adjusted for foreign exchange*

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2022.

"We are pleased with our fourth quarter results which were driven by strong seasonal traffic, the continued success of our security solutions and the growth of our cloud computing solutions", said Dr. Tom Leighton, Akamai's chief executive officer. "As we look forward to 2023, we are optimistic about our leadership position as the most widely distributed cloud platform with leading solutions for delivery, security and cloud computing."

Akamai delivered the following results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2022:

Revenue: Revenue for the fourth quarter was $928 million, a 2% increase over fourth quarter 2021 revenue of $905 million and a 6% increase when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Total revenue for 2022 was $3.617 billion compared to $3.461 billion for 2021, up 4% year-over-year and up 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Revenue by solution:

• Security revenue for the fourth quarter was $400 million, up 10% year-over-year and up 14% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Security revenue for 2022 was $1.542 billion, up 16% year-over-year and up 20% when adjusted for foreign exchange.*
• Delivery revenue for the fourth quarter was $415 million, down 12% year-over-year and down 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Delivery revenue for 2022 was $1.669 billion, down 11% year-over-year and down 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange.*
• Compute revenue for the fourth quarter was $112 million, up 61% year-over-year and up 65% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Compute revenue for 2022 was $405 million, up 60% year-over-year and up 64% when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Revenue by geography:

• U.S. revenue for the fourth quarter was $483 million, up 1% year-over-year. U.S. revenue for 2022 was $1.902 billion, up 4% year-over-year.
• International revenue for the fourth quarter was $445 million, up 4% year-over-year and up 12% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* International revenue for 2022 was $1.715 billion, up 6% year-over-year and up 13% when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Income from operations: GAAP income from operations for the fourth quarter was $167 million, a 15% decrease from fourth quarter 2021 income from operations of $196 million. GAAP operating margin for the fourth quarter was 18%, down 4 percentage points from the same period last year. GAAP income from operations for 2022 was $676 million, a 14% decrease from the prior year's GAAP income from operations of $783 million. Full-year GAAP operating margin was 19%, down 4 percentage points from the same period last year.

Non-GAAP income from operations* for the fourth quarter was $258 million, a 9% decrease from fourth quarter 2021 non-GAAP income from operations of $283 million. Non-GAAP operating margin* for the fourth quarter was 28%, down 3 percentage points from the same period last year. Non-GAAP income from operations* for 2022 was $1.033 billion, a 6% decrease from the prior year's non-GAAP income from operations of $1.094 billion. Full-year non-GAAP operating margin* was 29%, down 3 percentage points from the same period last year.

Net income: GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $129 million, a 20% decrease from fourth quarter 2021 GAAP net income of $161 million. GAAP net income for 2022 was $524 million, a 20% decrease from the prior year's GAAP net income of $652 million.

Non-GAAP net income* for the fourth quarter was $216 million, an 11% decrease from fourth quarter 2021 non-GAAP net income of $243 million. Non-GAAP net income* for 2022 was $858 million, a 9% decrease from the prior year's non-GAAP net income of $943 million.

EPS: GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.82 per diluted share, a 15% decrease from fourth quarter 2021 GAAP EPS of $0.97 per diluted share and an 8% decrease when adjusted for foreign exchange.* GAAP EPS for 2022 was $3.26 per diluted share, a 17% decrease from the prior year's GAAP EPS of $3.93 per diluted share and a 9% decrease when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Non-GAAP EPS* for the fourth quarter was $1.37 per diluted share, an 8% decrease from fourth quarter 2021 non-GAAP EPS of $1.49 per diluted share and a 2% decrease when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Non-GAAP EPS* for 2022 was $5.37 per diluted share, a 6% decrease from the prior year's non-GAAP EPS of $5.74 per diluted share and a 1% decrease when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Adjusted EBITDA*: Adjusted EBITDA* for the fourth quarter was $382 million, a 5% decrease from fourth quarter 2021 Adjusted EBITDA of $404 million. Adjusted EBITDA* for 2022 was $1.530 billion, a 2% decrease from the prior year's Adjusted EBITDA of $1.561 billion.

Supplemental cash information: Cash from operations for the fourth quarter was $341 million, or 37% of revenue. Cash from operations for 2022 was $1.275 billion, or 35% of revenue. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities was $1.4 billion as of December 31, 2022.

Share repurchases: The Company spent $178 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 to repurchase 2.1 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $86.50 per share. For the full-year 2022, the Company spent $608 million to repurchase 6.4 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $94.96 per share. The Company had 156 million shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2022.

Quarterly Conference Call

Akamai will host a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. ET that can be accessed through 1-833-634-5020 (or 1-412-902-4238 for international calls) and using passcode Akamai Technologies call. A live webcast of the call may be accessed at www.akamai.com in the Investor Relations section. In addition, a replay of the call will be available for two weeks following the conference by calling 1-877-344-7529 (or 1-412-317-0088 for international calls) and using passcode 7241694. The archived webcast of this event may be accessed through the Akamai website.

About Akamai

Akamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences – helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. Akamai Connected Cloud, a massively distributed edge and cloud platform, puts apps and experiences closer to users and keeps threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's cloud computing, security, and content delivery solutions at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to providing financial measurements based on generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (GAAP), Akamai provides additional financial metrics that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP (non-GAAP financial measures). Management uses non-GAAP financial measures to understand and compare operating results across accounting periods, for financial and operational decision making, for planning and forecasting purposes, to measure executive compensation and to evaluate Akamai's financial performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income per diluted share, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, capital expenditures and impact of foreign currency exchange rates, as discussed below.

Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect Akamai's ongoing business in a manner that allows for meaningful comparisons and analysis of trends in the business, as they facilitate comparison of financial results across accounting periods and to those of our peer companies. Management also believes that these non-GAAP financial measures enable investors to evaluate Akamai's operating results and future prospects in the same manner as management. These non-GAAP financial measures may exclude expenses and gains that may be unusual in nature, infrequent or not reflective of Akamai's ongoing operating results.

The non-GAAP financial measures do not replace the presentation of Akamai's GAAP financial results and should only be used as a supplement to, not as a substitute for, Akamai's financial results presented in accordance with GAAP. Akamai has provided a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure used in its financial reporting and investor presentations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. This reconciliation captioned "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures" can be found on the Investor Relations section of Akamai's website.

The non-GAAP adjustments, and Akamai's basis for excluding them from non-GAAP financial measures, are outlined below:

• Amortization of acquired intangible assets – Akamai has incurred amortization of intangible assets, included in its GAAP financial statements, related to various acquisitions Akamai has made. The amount of an acquisition's purchase price allocated to intangible assets and term of its related amortization can vary significantly and is unique to each acquisition; therefore, Akamai excludes amortization of acquired intangible assets from its non-GAAP financial measures to provide investors with a consistent basis for comparing pre- and post-acquisition operating results.
• Stock-based compensation and amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation – Although stock-based compensation is an important aspect of the compensation paid to Akamai's employees, the grant date fair value varies based on the stock price at the time of grant, varying valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and the variety of award types. This makes the comparison of Akamai's current financial results to previous and future periods difficult to interpret; therefore, Akamai believes it is useful to exclude stock-based compensation and amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation from its non-GAAP financial measures in order to highlight the performance of Akamai's core business and to be consistent with the way many investors evaluate its performance and compare its operating results to peer companies.
• Acquisition-related costs – Acquisition-related costs include transaction fees, advisory fees, due diligence costs and other direct costs associated with strategic activities, as well as certain additional compensation costs payable to employees acquired from the Linode acquisition if employed for a certain period of time. The additional compensation cost was initiated by and determined by the seller, and is in addition to normal levels of compensation, including retention programs, offered by Akamai. Acquisition-related costs are impacted by the timing and size of the acquisitions, and Akamai excludes acquisition-related costs from its non-GAAP financial measures to provide a useful comparison of operating results to prior periods and to peer companies because such amounts vary significantly based on the magnitude of the acquisition transactions and do not reflect Akamai's core operations.
• Restructuring charge – Akamai has incurred restructuring charges from programs that have significantly changed either the scope of the business undertaken by the Company or the manner in which that business is conducted. These charges include severance and related expenses for workforce reductions, impairments of long-lived assets that will no longer be used in operations (including right-of-use assets, other facility-related property and equipment and internal-use software) and termination fees for any contracts cancelled as part of these programs. Akamai excludes these items from its non-GAAP financial measures when evaluating its continuing business performance as such items vary significantly based on the magnitude of the restructuring action and do not reflect expected future operating expenses. In addition, these charges do not necessarily provide meaningful insight into the fundamentals of current or past operations of its business.
• Amortization of debt discount and issuance costs and amortization of capitalized interest expense – In August 2019, Akamai issued $1,150 million of convertible senior notes due 2027 with a coupon interest rate of 0.375%. In May 2018, Akamai issued $1,150 million of convertible senior notes due 2025 with a coupon interest rate of 0.125%. The imputed interest rates of these convertible senior notes were 3.10% and 4.26%, respectively. This is a result of the debt discounts recorded for the conversion features that, prior to January 1, 2022, were required to be separately accounted for as equity under GAAP, thereby reducing the carrying values of the convertible debt instruments. The debt discounts were amortized as interest expense. On January 1, 2022, Akamai adopted the new guidance for accounting for convertible instruments. This new guidance eliminated separate accounting for the equity portion, and thus the amortization of the debt discount that was recorded as interest expense. Prior to January 1, 2022, Akamai excluded this non-cash interest expense from its non-GAAP results because it was not representative of ongoing operating performance. After January 1, 2022, this interest expense is no longer included in or excluded from GAAP or non-GAAP results. Additionally, the issuance costs of the convertible senior notes are amortized to interest expense and are also excluded from Akamai's non-GAAP results because management believes the non-cash amortization expense is not representative of ongoing operating performance.
• Gains and losses on investments – Akamai has recorded gains and losses from the disposition, changes to fair value and impairment of certain investments. Akamai believes excluding these amounts from its non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors as the types of events giving rise to these gains and losses are not representative of Akamai's core business operations and ongoing operating performance.
• Income and losses from equity method investment – Akamai records income or losses on its share of earnings and losses from its equity method investment. Akamai excludes such income and losses because it does not have direct control over the operations of the investment and the related income and losses are not representative of its core business operations.
• Income tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments and certain discrete tax items – The non-GAAP adjustments described above are reported on a pre-tax basis. The income tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments is the difference between GAAP and non-GAAP income tax expense. Non-GAAP income tax expense is computed on non-GAAP pre-tax income (GAAP pre-tax income adjusted for non-GAAP adjustments) and excludes certain discrete tax items (such as recording or releasing of valuation allowances), if any. Akamai believes that applying the non-GAAP adjustments and their related income tax effect allows Akamai to highlight income attributable to its core operations.

Akamai's definitions of its non-GAAP financial measures are outlined below:

Non-GAAP income from operations – GAAP income from operations adjusted for the following items: amortization of acquired intangible assets; stock-based compensation; amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation; amortization of capitalized interest expense; acquisition-related costs; restructuring charges; and other non-recurring or unusual items that may arise from time to time.

Non-GAAP operating margin – Non-GAAP income from operations stated as a percentage of revenue.

Non-GAAP net income – GAAP net income adjusted for the following tax-affected items: amortization of acquired intangible assets; stock-based compensation; amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation; acquisition-related costs; restructuring charges; amortization of debt discount and issuance costs; amortization of capitalized interest expense; certain gains and losses on investments; income and losses from equity method investment; and other non-recurring or unusual items that may arise from time to time. 

Non-GAAP net income per diluted share – Non-GAAP net income divided by weighted average diluted common shares outstanding. Diluted weighted average shares outstanding are adjusted in non-GAAP per share calculations for the shares that would be delivered to Akamai pursuant to the note hedge transactions entered into in connection with the issuances of $1,150 million of convertible senior notes due 2027 and 2025, respectively. Under GAAP, shares delivered under hedge transactions are not considered offsetting shares in the fully-diluted share calculation until they are delivered. However, the Company would receive a benefit from the note hedge transactions and would not allow the dilution to occur, so management believes that adjusting for this benefit provides a meaningful view of operating performance. With respect to the convertible senior notes due in each of 2027 and 2025, unless Akamai's weighted average stock price is greater than $116.18 and $95.10, respectively, the initial conversion price, there will be no difference between GAAP and non-GAAP diluted weighted average common shares outstanding.

Adjusted EBITDA – GAAP net income excluding the following items: interest and marketable securities income and losses; income taxes; depreciation and amortization of tangible and intangible assets; stock-based compensation; amortization of capitalized stock-based compensation; acquisition-related costs; restructuring charges; foreign exchange gains and losses; interest expense; amortization of capitalized interest expense; certain gains and losses on investments; income and losses on equity method investment; and other non-recurring or unusual items that may arise from time to time.

Adjusted EBITDA margin – Adjusted EBITDA stated as a percentage of revenue.

Capital expenditures, or capex, excluding stock-based compensation and interest expense – Purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of internal-use software development costs presented on an accrual basis, which differs from the cash-basis presentation included in the statements of cash flows. The primary difference between the two is the change in purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of internal-use software development costs accrued for, but not paid, at period end versus prior periods.

Impact of foreign currency exchange rate – Revenue and earnings from international operations have historically been an important contributor to Akamai's financial results. Consequently, Akamai's financial results have been impacted, and management expects they will continue to be impacted, by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. For example, when the local currencies of our foreign subsidiaries weaken, our consolidated results stated in U.S. dollars are negatively impacted.

Because exchange rates are a meaningful factor in understanding period-to-period comparisons, management believes the presentation of the impact of foreign currency exchange rates on revenue and earnings enhances the understanding of our financial results and evaluation of performance in comparison to prior periods. The dollar impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates presented is calculated by translating current period results using monthly average foreign currency exchange rates from the comparative period and comparing them to the reported amount. The percentage change at constant currency presented is calculated by comparing the prior period amounts as reported and the current period amounts translated using the same monthly average foreign currency exchange rates from the comparative period. 

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

This release and/or our quarterly earnings conference call scheduled for later today contain statements that are not statements of historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements about expected future financial performance, expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, inability to continue to generate cash at the same level as prior years; failure of our investments in innovation to generate solutions that are accepted in the market; inability to increase our revenue at the same rate as in the past and keep our expenses from increasing at a greater rate than our revenues; effects of competition, including pricing pressure and changing business models; impact of macroeconomic trends, including economic uncertainty, the effects of inflation, increasing interest rates, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, securities market volatility and monetary supply fluctuations; conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment, including sanctions and disruptions resulting from the ongoing war in Ukraine; continuing supply chain and logistics costs, constraints, changes or disruptions; defects or disruptions in our products or IT systems, including cyber-attacks, data breaches or malware; failure to realize the expected benefits of any of our acquisitions or reorganizations; changes to economic, political and regulatory conditions in the United States and internationally; our ability to attract and retain key personnel; impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; delay in developing or failure to develop new service offerings or functionalities, and if developed, lack of market acceptance of such service offerings and functionalities or failure of such solutions to operate as expected, and other factors that are discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

In addition, the statements in this press release and on our quarterly earnings conference call represent Akamai's expectations and beliefs as of the date of this press release. Akamai anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause these expectations and beliefs to change. However, while Akamai may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Akamai's expectations or beliefs as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.