Alt-tech social networking service Parler has acquired select software and hardware Edgecast assets as part of Edgio's bankruptcy filing.
This week, it also acquired open-source cloud orchestration platform Triton DataCenter.
Content Delivery Network (CDN) firm Edgio filed for bankruptcy last September, with its customer contracts acquired by larger rival Akamai in November for more than $100 million. Edgio debtor Lynrock also picked up assets for Uplynk and Interdigital, some of Edgio’s patents.
Edgio was formed in 2022 after Limelight Networks acquired Edgecast from Yahoo and Apollo Global Management, with the combined company rebranding that year.
At its peak, Edgio's network comprised 300 Points of Presence (PoPs) worldwide, more than 7,000 ISP interconnections, and more than 275Tbps of global capacity.
Parler paid $7.5m for the Edgecast assets, which covers 25 global locations, and has the option to pay another $2.5m for IP addresses.
"Although the Parler Assets were developed by Edgio for use by customers who are now serviced by Akamai, I understand that Parler expects the Parler Assets to be useful to itself in operating an alternative social media network," Edgio CEO Todd Hinders said in a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Hinders warned that delaying the sale would "jeopardize the Debtors’ ability to transition critical employees to Parler." Edgio has been cutting the remaining staff since the bankruptcy, with most expected to be gone by the end of this month.
Parler expects to hire about 120 Edgio employees.
Alongside the Edgio deal, Parler acquired Triton DataCenter, making it a part of 'Parler Cloud Technologies,' the company's cloud service it launched last March.
At the time, the company said that it was using Triton's SmartOS software for hosted cloud services. Parler's cloud website now redirects to Triton's, and it is not clear if Parler Cloud had any customers beyond Parler itself.
Triton Datacenter is not a data center operator, but rather an open-source cloud management platform.
The company began as a part of Joyent, a cloud computing company that was acquired by Samsung in 2016. That deal ultimately led to cutbacks and a scaling back of Joyent's efforts, with Triton sold off to small Michigan-based managed cloud solutions provider MNX in 2022.
Joyent now lists Triton as a 'legacy solution,' but Triton website product demos still show public cloud hosting as through Joyent.
"This acquisition is a game-changer for Open Compute-powered cloud solutions," said Nick Wilkens, CIO at Parler Cloud Technologies. Wilkens was previously the CEO of Triton owner MNX.
"By integrating Triton DataCenter, we are not only scaling Parler Social, PlayTV [its video site], and ParlerPay [its cryptocurrency payments platform], but also offering high-performance enterprise cloud hosting that prioritizes speed, security, and freedom from Big Tech constraints."
The company has pitched Parler Cloud as a 'censorship-resistant private cloud and hosting solution,' and claimed it can offer 'blockchain-powered decentralized hosting.'
Wilkens did not respond to questions about how many customers Parler Cloud has, what the company's IT footprint is, or what it plans to do with Edgio's assets.
Parler was founded in 2018 as a 'free speech' alternative to Twitter and Facebook, with little moderation, making it popular with the alt-right movement. The platform gained notoriety in the January 6th insurrection over claims that it was used to coordinate the attack that led to multiple deaths and assaults.
Apple and Google temporarily removed the app from their app stores, while Amazon Web Services announced that it would end services to the company, with Parler moving to a SkySilk/QuadraNet data center in 2021.
The following year, Parler created a new parent company, Parlement Technologies, to build what it called an 'uncancelable’ web. The company acquired California-based Dynascale, which operates 50,000 square foot (4,645 sqm) of data center space across three sites.
However, in 2023, after the rise of alternative alt-sites and a failed effort to sell to Kanye West, Parlement began mass layoffs - including its CTO, COO, and marketing head.
By the end of the year, Parlement was no more, and Parler was acquired by a group consisting of Ryan Rhodes, Elise Pierotti, and Jaco Booyens.
"We can't be taken down like the previous iteration of Parler because we have our own cloud," CEO Rhodes said in an interview with the Digital Social Hour Podcast.
"That allows us a lot of ability to not have to worry about certain other things, because we have our own infrastructure. Other apps have definitely not done that, especially not apps trying to compete in a more free speech dialog - AWS can take them down, they can't take us down."
With an extended period of downtime, growing competition (including President Donald Trump's Truth Social, and Twitter becoming X and embracing a light moderation policy), the size of Parler is unclear. In his October 2024 interview, Rhodes claimed 16 million users.
Contrary to his comments, others have also begun to develop their own infrastructure. Trump Media & Technology Group has deployed what it claims to be a "cross-country network of data centers that power its custom-built CDN," based off of the acquisition of WorldConnect.
X also has a substantial data center infrastructure, alongside cloud deals.
Last year, US hosting firm Patmos announced it was building a 100MW data center in Kansas City, Missouri, “free from the threat of Big Tech censorship."
