Akamai Drops Ads For Online Gambling
from the why? dept
Akamai has certainly been struggling lately, so it's a bit surprising to hear them say that they're terminating relationships with online gambling companies. You would think that they'd take any business they can get. However, when you look at the details, another possibility arises. They clearly weren't making very much money off of the gambling sites (they claim a fraction of a percent), and were shutting down that business in order to focus on 3 core areas that have nothing to do with gambling anyway. So, someone there had the bright idea that announcing how they were kicking out the gambling companies might make a good press release for a company struggling for attention. Now, they get to do what they were going to do anyway (restructure their business in an attempt to survive) while looking like a good corporate citizen for ditching these questionably legal sites.
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A 3-way win scenario?
Don't laugh, because Saudis are already huge stakeholders in the US economy; they merely keep a low profile. The best hotels in every American city have long been used to entertaining the whims of Saudi princes, be it setting up indoor sand volleyball courts at 2AM, or hiring all the escort girls in the state to turn the entire hotel into a sea of debauchery.
Tech firms can gain lots of business from a "Saud-e Arabia" initiative, to install massive censored internets. Tracking software can find illicit relationships between men and women, so mass executions of women can take place. Silicon Valley engineers will move in droves to Saudi Arabia, where many will not want to go back from a life of $200,000 salaries, chauffered limos, and owning four Filipino sex slaves... er, wives.
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