Akamai Technologies Inc., whose content delivery network accelerates the performance of web and mobile sites, says it will acquire competitor Cotendo. Akamai says the acquisition will help it offer more web-based and mobile services.

Akamai says it will pay approximately $268 million in cash and assume all outstanding unvested stock options for the three-year-old Cotendo. Akamai says it expects to close the deal during the first half of 2012.

“Cotendo’s technology, partnerships and people are a strong complement to Akamai,” says Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai. “We believe there is tremendous opportunity for our combined technologies as enterprises embrace the move to the cloud and seek solutions for an increasingly mobile world.” The ‘cloud’ refers to web-based or web-delivered services.

Akamai provides content delivery services to 154 retailers in Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide, including top players such as Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1) and Apple Inc. (No. 3). It also provides web hosting services to seven retailers in the guide, including Crate & Barrel (No. 55) and American Girl LLC (No. 106).