Accenture Acquires Ookla, Downdetector As Part of $1.2 Billion Deal (theregister.com)
(Tuesday March 03, 2026 @05:00PM (BeauHD)
from the combined-software dept.)
- Reference: 0180900374
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/03/03/1825201/accenture-acquires-ookla-downdetector-as-part-of-12-billion-deal
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/03/accenture_buys_ookla_downdetector_ziff_davis/
Accenture is [1]acquiring Downdetector parent company Ookla from Ziff Davis in a $1.2 billion deal to bolster its network analytics and visibility tools for telecoms, hyperscalers, and enterprises. "The deal, which will transfer all of Ziff Davis's Connectivity division to Accenture, [2]includes Ookla's Speedtest, Ekahau, and RootMetrics," notes The Register reports:
> "Modern networks have evolved from simple infrastructure into business-critical platforms," said Accenture CEO Julie Sweet in a canned statement. "Without the ability to measure performance, organizations cannot optimize experience, revenue, or security." Ookla is meant to let them do just that.
>
> Data captured at the network and device layer are used to enhance fraud prevention in banking, smart homes monitoring, and traffic optimization in retail, Accenture said. Ookla's platform, which lets user's test their own connectivity speed, captures more than 1,000 attributes per test, and provides the foundation for those analytics, Accenture said.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/03/accenture_buys_ookla_downdetector_ziff_davis/
[2] https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2026/accenture-to-acquire-ookla-to-strengthen-network-intelligence-and-experience-with-data-and-ai-for-enterprises
> "Modern networks have evolved from simple infrastructure into business-critical platforms," said Accenture CEO Julie Sweet in a canned statement. "Without the ability to measure performance, organizations cannot optimize experience, revenue, or security." Ookla is meant to let them do just that.
>
> Data captured at the network and device layer are used to enhance fraud prevention in banking, smart homes monitoring, and traffic optimization in retail, Accenture said. Ookla's platform, which lets user's test their own connectivity speed, captures more than 1,000 attributes per test, and provides the foundation for those analytics, Accenture said.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/03/accenture_buys_ookla_downdetector_ziff_davis/
[2] https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2026/accenture-to-acquire-ookla-to-strengthen-network-intelligence-and-experience-with-data-and-ai-for-enterprises
Was nice while it lasted (Score:2)
by pete6677 ( 681676 )
Soon downdetector will turn into a useless pile of shit just like everything else Accscamsure touches.
Re: (Score:2)
by anoncoward69 ( 6496862 )
"Do the needful"
RIP Ookla, Downdetector (Score:4, Insightful)
Accenture is a poster child for shit.
I use some of their software every work day and it is all terrible.
They don't have any clue how the software is actually used, every part of it is a special case (every part works differently) and it's just terribly fragile in general.
This is not the business model (Score:2)
"This is not the business model you were looking for."
Yeah, I had to go for the easy joke. But my only interest in Ookla involves their speed test and I also haven't figured out that business model. Where the heck did this $1.2 billion "valuation" come from?
Now about Accenture and funny money. I just did some related research, but you have to add lots of grains of salt to "my results" because an AI was involved, but the short summary is: The parts of the "visible" economy that used to count have one value.
Re: (Score:2)
Ookla charges ISPs a bunch of money to host speedtest servers for them. When I worked for a company that supported a bunch of small rural telephone company ISPs 5+ years ago, IIRC Ookla charged them each over $2000/year. I expect they charge bigger companies (especially with multiple servers) a lot more, and they plaster the app with ads. They also have more than just the regular speedtest servers.
Re: (Score:2)
> "This is not the business model you were looking for."
> Yeah, I had to go for the easy joke. But my only interest in Ookla involves their speed test and I also haven't figured out that business model. Where the heck did this $1.2 billion "valuation" come from?
They sell data and software to big ISPs, content providers, cell providers, etc. That free speed test pulls a lot of data the other companies want. You basically act as a test node in exchange for getting your speed test. Same with DownDetector. Companies pay them to get alerts and data from user reports (there is a reason it pings your browser/device for permission to access your location data when you make a report). [1]https://www.ookla.com/ [ookla.com]
[1] https://www.ookla.com/
Re: RIP Ookla, Downdetector (Score:2)
Accenture is a bunch of hollow suits n ties, what the F kinda software are you doomed to use from them?????