JWCA advises Akamai on its dual-tranche $2.5 billion convertible and call spread transaction

November 2026 | read press release

Transaction Background

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (“Akamai” or the “Company”) successfully raised $2.5bn (inclusive of greenshoe) in the convertible market with a dual-tranche offering at highly attractive terms (1.00% coupon and 40.0% conversion premium for the 2028 notes and 1.00% coupon and 27.5% conversion premium for the 2031 notes)

Following the announcement of the Company’s $11.6bn Cloud Infrastructure agreement with Anthropic in September, Akamai opportunistically accessed the convertible market to raise growth capital and prefund upcoming debt maturities

Akamai’s objectives included:

  • Raise low-cost debt to fund capital expenditures and prefund the 2027 convertible notes at maturity

  • Optimize its capital structure & strategically stack debt maturities

  • Protect against future equity dilution through derivative overlays

  • Access market efficiently & minimize stock price risk during execution

JWCA provided extensive analysis on deal structuring and related items, including:

  • Derivative overlay alternatives & dilution mitigation strategies

  • Convertible and call spread documentation & structuring to ensure maximum value and future efficiency / flexibility for the Company

  • Execution tactics and timing, investor and shareholder messaging

  • Tax analysis & accounting implications related to convertible and call spread

JWCA designed and ran a call spread auction process to achieve highly competitive terms

Results

Akamai’s dual-tranche convertible transaction was extremely well received by investors:

  • The transaction was multiple times oversubscribed, with significant outright demand, reflecting strong messaging by the Company throughout day of marketing

  • The 2-year’s 40.0% conversion premium represented the company friendly end of the range

  • The 5-year’s 27.5% conversion premium represented the midpoint of the range

JWCA’s auction process produced meaningful savings for Akamai, reducing the all-in cost of capital across both tranches and executing upon one of the Company’s key objectives

This offering makes Akamai the largest US convertible issuer by volume in the last 25 years 

This is JWCA’s fourth advisory assignment for the Company after advising Akamai on its convertible and call spread transactions in August 2023, May 2025 and May 2026