[Tech Thoughts] Speedtest, DownDetector owner Ookla’s sale to Accenture at a glance

Ziff Davis announced on Tuesday, March 3, that it was selling its Connectivity division to Accenture in a deal worth $1.2 billion in cash, subject to approval by regulators.

While Ziff Davis isn’t a household name in the Philippines — unless you come from the cable TV area of ZDTV in the ’90s — some of the offerings in Connectivity division are. That division includes Ookla’s Speedtest and DownDetector brands and services, alongside other services like Ekahau and RootMetrics.

In all, these various offerings provide a backbone from which average users and enterprise customers can check on the stability and strength of their connections online.

What’s Ookla’s suite got?

For the average internet-addled user, SpeedTest and DownDetector are staples.

While SpeedTest lets users test their connection’s data rate and latency, DownDetector lets users check in real time if a given service is unavailable due to downtime reports.

For more advanced users, Ekahau gives tools for users to troubleshoot and design wireless networks, while RootMetrics monitors mobile network performance.

Accenture building for AI, hyperscaling for enterprises

Accenture, in its own statement announcing the acquisition of Ziff Davis’ Connectivity division, said the aim of the purchase was to “help Communications Service Providers (CSPs), hyperscalers, and enterprises optimize the mission-critical Wi-Fi and 5G networks that power their digital core” by providing data and analytics for them.

According to Accenture, Ookla’s tests are helpful in providing the data needed to make decisions as artificial intelligence development scales.

Said Accenture of AI scaling initiatives, “the insights captured at the network, device, and application layers are essential to enhance fraud prevention in banking, smart home analytics in utilities, and traffic optimization in retail. Ookla’s platform, which captures more than 1,000 attributes per test, provides the foundation for these insights.”

Keeping the business going

Accenture reasoned out that in the time of AI agents, users will need stable, fast access to the internet to make sure agentic AI runs smoothly with minimal to no friction.

Acquiring Ookla’s various services aims to help in that regard, as it has a ton of data — more than 250 million consumer-initiated tests monthly, alongside what Accenture called “controlled drive, walk and embedded testing options” to better define the quality of service and the quality of experience people and companies are getting from their connectivity solutions provider.

Manish Sharma, chief strategy and services officer for Accenture, said of the acquisition, “With the Ookla portfolio, we will offer end-to-end network intelligence services essential for AI-based transformation.”

“Speedtest and RootMetrics define the experience; Downdetector identifies incidents faster; and Ekahau drives digital workplace transformation through superior WiFi. In an era of omni-channel and agentic access, low-latency, zero-friction connectivity is a competitive necessity, and these tools give enterprises the power to build the high-performance environments they need,” Sharma added.

While that informs their enterprise userbase, you can expect Accenture to likely keep things the same for its common users.

As an Accenture spokesperson told Ars Technica as regards the acquisition, it plans to operate the Ookla “business as it operates today.” – Rappler.com