Making a push into Internet content delivery networks, Verizon Communications said Monday it’s agreed to buy EdgeCast Networks, the main rival of market leader Akamai Technologies in licensing CDN technology to telecom, media and other companies. The Verizon-EdgeCast deal will likely intensify competition in the CDN market, where Akamai (AKAM) faces competition from newcomer Amazon Web Services, the cloud arm of Amazon.com (AMZN). Verizon (VZ)
E-commerce leader Amazon.com (AMZN) has signed up more than 16 million subscribers for its Amazon Prime service, according to a new study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. CIRP surveyed 300 U.S. customers of Amazon for a three-month period ending Nov. 15 and determined that 33% are Amazon Prime members. In addition, 5% of customers are Amazon Student members and 2% are Amazon Mom members. The student and mom memberships offer Prime service along with discounts and other benefits. Amazon Prime costs $79 a year and provides free two-day shipping on millions of products, plus unlimited streaming of 150,000 movies and TV episodes with Prime Instant Video. With 16 million subscribers, Amazon Prime Video is emerging as a strong competitor to Netflix (NFLX]), which has 31 million U.S. streaming video subscribers. Both services have been bolstering their libraries with studio deals and by producing original shows. In November, Amazon…
Amazon.com (AMZN) said Monday that it’s offering a new version of its parental software controls for kids on its Kindle Fire tablets that has more educational features. Kindle FreeTime for Kindle Fire tablets now allows parents to set goals for their kids, manage screen time differently on weekdays vs. weekends and set “bedtime curfews” for device use. Parents, for example, can stop kids from watching cartoons on their tablets in the middle of the