Downdetector and Speedtest Sold to Accenture in $1.2 Billion Deal

Downdetector and Speedtest Sold to Accenture in $1.2 Billion Deal

Accenture has agreed to acquire Ookla — the company behind Speedtest and Downdetector — from Ziff Davis for $1.2 billion. The deal transforms two of the internet's most widely-used consumer tools into enterprise and government assets.

The Deal

• Acquirer: Accenture, the $200B+ IT services and consulting firm
• Seller: Ziff Davis, which originally acquired Ookla in 2014 for $15 million
• Price: $1.2 billion — an 80x return on Ziff Davis's original investment
• Expected close: "In the coming months"

Why Accenture Wants Ookla

Ookla's tools have significant B2B and government applications:

• Speedtest intelligence: Ookla aggregates network performance data from hundreds of millions of tests, providing granular coverage maps
• Downdetector data: Real-time service outage data is valuable for telecom regulators, enterprise IT monitoring, and competitive intelligence
• Government clients: Accenture already serves the US Air Force, Social Security Administration, and Department of State
• AI infrastructure: Network performance data is critical for planning AI data center deployments

Why Users Should Care

Both Speedtest and Downdetector are deeply embedded in how people understand the internet:

• Speedtest: The default tool for testing internet connection quality globally
• Downdetector: The go-to reference when any major online service goes down

Under Accenture's enterprise focus, there are concerns about:

• Data privacy: Consumer speed test data being used for enterprise intelligence
• Access restrictions: Tools being limited to paying enterprise customers
• Government surveillance: Data being shared with government agencies through existing contracts

The Broader Trend

This acquisition reflects a broader trend of consumer internet tools being absorbed into enterprise ecosystems:

• GitHub → Microsoft (2018, $7.5B)
• LinkedIn → Microsoft (2016, $26.2B)
• Gravatar → Automattic (2023)
• Stack Overflow → Prosus (2021)

Source: Ars Technica | Reuters Report