EXHIBIT 99.1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:
Jeff Young                                               J.C. Raby
Media Relations                                          Investor Relations
Akamai Technologies                                      Akamai Technologies
617-444-3913                       --or--                617-444-2555
jyoung@akamai.com                                        jraby@akamai.com


                      AKAMAI ADOPTS SHAREHOLDER RIGHTS PLAN

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., September 10, 2002 - Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NasdaqSC:
AKAM) today announced that its Board of Directors has adopted a shareholder
rights plan designed to ensure that all Akamai shareholders receive fair and
equal treatment in the event of an unsolicited takeover proposal. The plan is
intended to safeguard against abusive takeover tactics that limit the ability of
all shareholders to realize the long-term value of their investment in Akamai.
Akamai's shareholder rights plan is similar to plans adopted by many other
publicly-traded companies, and was not adopted in response to any current effort
to acquire control of the company.

Under the rights plan, each holder of Akamai common stock as of the close of
business on September 23, 2002, will receive one right for each share of common
stock held. The rights will automatically trade with the underlying common stock
and will not be exercisable. Unless the following type of transaction was
approved by Akamai's Board of Directors, the rights will become exercisable upon
the earlier to occur of (a) ten business days after the later of the first
public announcement that a person has acquired beneficial ownership of 15% or
more of Akamai's common stock or the first date on which an executive officer of
Akamai has actual knowledge that a person has acquired beneficial ownership of
15% or more of Akamai's common stock or (b) ten business days following the
commencement of a tender offer or exchange offer by a person for 15% or more of
Akamai's common stock.

If the rights become exercisable, the type and amount of securities receivable
upon exercise of the rights would depend on the circumstances at the time of
exercise. Initially, each right would entitle holders to purchase one
one-thousandth of a share of Akamai's newly created Series A Junior
Participating Preferred Stock at an exercise price of $9.00. If a person
acquires 15 percent or more of Akamai's common stock in a transaction that was
not approved by Akamai's Board of Directors, each right, other than those owned
by the acquiring person, would instead entitle the holder to purchase $18.00
worth of Akamai's common stock for the $9.00 exercise price. If Akamai is
involved in a merger or other transaction with another company that is not
approved by Akamai's Board of Directors, in which Akamai is not the surviving
corporation, or which transfers more than 50 percent of Akamai's assets to
another company, then each right, other than those owned by the acquiring
person, would instead entitle the holder to purchase $18.00 worth of the
acquiring company's common stock for the $9.00 exercise price.

                                     -more-


                                                                        Akamai/2

Akamai's Board of Directors may redeem the rights for $0.001 per right at any
time until ten business days after a person acquires 15 percent or more of
Akamai's common stock, or on the date on which any executive officer of Akamai
has actual knowledge of such acquisition, whichever is later. Unless the rights
are redeemed or exchanged earlier, they will expire on September 10, 2012.

A summary of the rights plan will be included in a Form 8-K to be filed by
Akamai with the SEC and will also be mailed to shareholders of record of
Akamai's common stock shortly after the September 23, 2002 record date.

ABOUT AKAMAI
Akamai is the leading provider of edge computing solutions, delivering secure
content and distributed applications across the Internet, intranets, and
extranets. These solutions enable customers to achieve optimal results from
their e-business initiatives, thereby reducing the cost of ownership, improving
return on investment, and creating new revenue streams. Akamai's globally
distributed edge computing platform comprises more than 12,900 servers in more
than 1,000 networks in 66 countries, ensuring the highest levels of
availability, reliability, and performance. Headquartered in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Akamai provides services and world-class customer care to
hundreds of successful enterprises, government entities, and leading
e-businesses worldwide. For more information, visit www.akamai.com.

                                      # # #

AKAMAI STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT

The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects
of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes
of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995, including statements with respect to the distribution of the summary of
the rights plan to shareholders of record. Actual results may differ materially
from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various
important factors including, but not limited to, the timing of notices to be
delivered in connection with the rights plan, the dependence on Akamai's
Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the
complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the
failure to obtain access to transmission capacity, Akamai's ability to protect
its intellectual property rights and inventions from third party challenges and
other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K and
other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

(C)2002 Akamai Technologies, Inc.