Stifel analyst, Matthew Heinz, believes yesterday's selloff in Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) shares was primarily due to uncertainty surrounding the impact of Twitter's (NYSE: TWTR) deal with the NFL in obtaining digital streaming rights for 10 Thursday Night Football games this fall. The Twitter/NFL deal is somewhat neutral for AKAM in the short-term until more clarity is gained around Twitter's choice of CDN partner(s). No change to Hold rating.

Twitter (TWTR) has agreed to pay the NFL $10M for non-exclusive streaming rights to 10 Thursday night games this fall. Twitter reportedly won the negotiation despite offering $5M less than the next highest bid, suggesting that the NFL may see a strategic angle to capturing the Twitter audience, thus making it more attractive than other large digital content platforms that were also reportedly involved (i.e. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Verizon, and Yahoo!). We would also note that Twitter CFO Anthony Noto was previously CFO of the NFL, and reportedly worked closely with his former employer in the negotiations.

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Shares of Akamai Technologies closed at $53.14 yesterday.