Akamai profit beats on strength in cloud security business

(Compares with estimates, adds segment details, share price)

July 31 (Reuters) - Akamai Technologies Inc topped Wall Street's estimates for second-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by an aggressive push into cloud security and a stabilizing media content delivery business.

Revenue from the cloud security business - which provides data centers with safe ways to operate and deliver content - rose 33 percent to $155 million in the quarter.

Akamai's traditional business of media content delivery, which has been under pressure from large media customers such as Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc developing in-house know-how to handle web traffic, also reported growth.

Revenue from the company's media and carrier division, which includes media delivery business, rose 8 percent to $311.7 million. The company's overall revenue rose 9.4 percent to $662.8 million, narrowly beating the average analyst estimate of $661.98 million.

Net income fell to $43.1 million, or 25 cents per share, in the quarter ended June 30 from $56.8 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier as expenses rose 16.4 percent.

Excluding items, the company earned 83 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 80 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company rose 0.3 percent to $75.51 in after-hours trading.

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)