Two companies that were once fierce competitors during the dot-com heyday will join forces, as Akamai Technologies on Wednesday announced plans to purchase Speedera Networks. Both vendors made their mark in the late 1990s in the CDN (content delivery network) space, which aimed to speed the delivery of static and dynamic Web content through an overlay network of servers. Under terms of the deal, Akamai will acquire Speedera in a stock-for-stock merger valued at about $130 million. As the market for delivering static and dynamic content dried up in recent years, both companies pushed into delivering Web applications and on-demand services.The joining of Akamai and Speedera is shocking given the protracted, and often ugly, legal skirmishes between the two companies.In 2002, Akamai sued Speedera, alleging that Speedera co-founder and CTO Richard Day stole Akamai trade secrets from a database maintained by Web performance testing company Keynote Systems. Part of the lawsuit claimed that Speedera officials broke into a secure database to gain private Akamai customer prospects and other technical information.Speedera, in turn, filed suit against Akamai for unfair competition and trade libel.In the press release announcing the merger, Akamai officials said that all pending litigation between the companies is stayed upon signing of the deal and will be formally dismissed when and if the deal is closed. Technology Industry