• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 2, 2010

Content delivery company Limelight Networks on Monday announced the acquisition of Delve Networks, a privately held provider of cloud-based video publishing and analytics services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but unconfirmed reports put the purchase price in the range of $10 million.

Following Limelight's recent acquisition of rich media company EyeWonder for $110 million, the deal is part of a larger effort to scale Limelight's services, said Jeff Lunsford, chairman and chief executive officer of Limelight. "Content producers and online businesses need scalable tools," said Lunsford.

Founded in 2006, Seattle-based Delve Networks' software-as-a-service platform helps online businesses with the addition, management, syndication, analysis, and monetization of Web video. Its tools include hosting, encoding, channel and playlist management, video search, metrics, and advertising.

Delve customers include ESPN, Hallmark, Lego, Standard & Poors, and US Lacrosse.

As part of Limelight Networks, the Delve Networks team will continue to focus on product development, sales and support within the online video publishing sector. The acquisition offers Delve's cloud software platform "important Internet-scale infrastructure resources," according to Delve founder and CEO Alexander Castro.

Last year, Tempe, AZ-based Limelight bought video ad insertion firm Kiptronic for a reported $12 million. Kiptronic's Web-based tools are designed to help advertisers detect and serve dynamic video ads to connected devices. Publisher partners include NPR, Fox, The Guardian, Conde Nast, The Economist, and NBC.com.

In late 2008, Limelight rival Akamai Technologies agreed to acquire ad network Acerno for $95 million. Acerno also boasted an impressive executive roster, beginning with its CEO Tom Sperry, who previously served as general manager of aQuantive's Avenue A digital agency and president of its technology and service unit, Atlas.

Also in 2008, Microsoft was rumored to be considering an acquisition of Limelight.