Akamai Research: AI Bots Threaten the Foundation of Web-Based Business Models

Rhea-AI Summary

DiamondRock Hospitality Company (NYSE:DRH) amended and restated its senior unsecured credit facility, increasing capacity from $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion and extending maturities.

The Credit Facility now includes a $400M revolver maturing January 2031 (two six-month extension options), a $500M term loan maturing January 2029 (two six-month extensions), and two $300M term loans maturing January 2030 (one of which has two six-month extensions). Term loans are prepayable without penalty.

The company will use the incremental $300M to repay mortgage loans that matured or will mature in 2025, including the prior repayment of ~$125.0M in mortgages and a planned $166.6M prepayment in September 2025. After these actions, DiamondRock expects no debt maturities until January 2028 and a portfolio free of secured debt.

Positive

• Facility upsized from $1.2B to $1.5B
• No debt maturities until January 2028
• Incremental $300M used to repay 2025 mortgage maturities
• Term loans are prepayable without penalty

Negative

• Planned $166.6M mortgage prepayment in September 2025 (cash outflow)

Insights

Credit Strategist

Upsized and extended unsecured facility reduces near-term refinancing and secured‑debt risk, improving liquidity and flexibility.

The Company amended and restated a previously existing $1.2 billion senior unsecured facility, increasing it to $1.5 billion. The new package includes a $400 million revolver maturing in January 2031 and three term loans with staggered maturities through January 2030. Management will use the incremental $300 million to repay mortgage loans that matured or will mature in 2025, and plans to remove secured debt tied to specific properties.

This structure materially lowers near‑term maturity concentration by eliminating debt maturities until January 2028 and leaving the portfolio free of secured debt after the planned September repayment. Key risks include covenant terms and pricing embedded in the amendment, which are not disclosed. Watch the facility covenant schedule, interest spread, and any springing covenants over the next 12–18 months.

Corporate Finance Analyst

Liquidity extended and secured‑debt removal improve capital allocation optionality over the medium term.

By upsizing to $1.5 billion and extending maturities, the Company gains immediate liquidity to retire about $125.0 million of matured mortgages and to prepay a $166.6 million mortgage in September 2025. The term loans allow prepayment without penalty, preserving optionality for future deleveraging or investments.

Dependencies include lender pricing, covenant mechanics, and actual execution of the planned mortgage prepayment. Monitor the announced prepayment in September 2025, the company’s covenant compliance in upcoming filings, and any use of the revolver. Expect observable effects on leverage and secured‑debt metrics within the next two quarters.

AI bot traffic skyrockets by 300% in one year

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online, today released a new State of the Internet (SOTI) report that reveals an alarming spike in automated traffic driven largely by AI-powered bots targeting websites across all industries.

According to the Digital Fraud and Abuse Report 2025, AI bots now account for a rapidly expanding share of this traffic, with activity surging by 300% over the past year. These bots generate billions of requests, significantly distorting digital operations and analytics. They now compose nearly 1% of total bot traffic across Akamai's platform.

This spike is caused by widespread content scraping, and it underscores how AI bots are actively undermining traditional web-based business models. As bot traffic grows, publishers and other content-driven businesses are seeing corrupted analytics and collapsing ad revenues through bots extracting value without giving any in return.

Beyond scraping, the report reveals the rapid growth of AI-enabled tools has made it easier than ever for both experienced threat professionals and new malicious actors to launch impersonation attacks, conduct social engineering, distribute phishing campaigns, and commit identity fraud using AI-generated fake documents and images.

Key findings from the report include:

• The publishing industry has taken the hardest hit within the broader digital media industry with 63% of AI bot triggers.
  
  
• Online businesses are under strain from both helpful and harmful bots. Although some bots support functions like search engine indexing and accessibility, malicious bots — including FraudGPT, WormGPT, ad fraud bots, and return fraud bots — are driving up costs, degrading site performance, and skewing key metrics.
  
  
• The commerce industry leads in AI bot activity, registering more than 25 billion bot requests over a two-month observation period.
  
  
• In healthcare, more than 90% of AI bot triggers stem from scraping, largely by search and training bots.

To defend against these threats, the report encourages organizations to develop capabilities aligned with the three OWASP Top 10 frameworks for web applications, APIs, and large language models (LLMs). These frameworks help security teams map known vulnerabilities — such as broken access control, injection flaws, and data exposure — to their organization's fraud risk tolerance, allowing for smarter prioritization of defenses.

Additionally the report includes:

• A deep dive into how bots evade detection
  
  
• A guest column from the CISO of FS-ISAC, the not-for-profit organization that advances cybersecurity and resilience in the global financial system
  
  
• Regional and industry-specific attack data
  
  
• A primer on AI scraper bot categories
  
  
• Guidance on balancing regulatory compliance with AI security strategies

"The rise of AI bots has moved from the security team's concern to the boardroom's business imperative," said Rupesh Chokshi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Application Security, at Akamai. "Business leaders must act now to build frameworks that ensure secure AI adoption, manage evolving risks, and safeguard digital operations — or find themselves playing catch-up."

Now in its 11th year, Akamai's SOTI reports continue to offer critical insights on cybersecurity trends and web performance, drawn from Akamai's infrastructure, which handles more than one-third of global web traffic.

About Akamai

Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense in depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai's full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world's most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence. Learn more atakamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on X and LinkedIn.

Media Contact: Akamai PR, akamaiPR@akamai.com

 

FAQ

What change did DiamondRock (NYSE:DRH) make to its credit facility on July 23, 2025?

The company amended and restated its senior unsecured facility, increasing it from $1.2B to $1.5B and extending maturities.

How is DiamondRock (NYSE:DRH) using the incremental $300M from the upsized facility?

The incremental $300M will repay mortgage loans that matured or will mature in 2025.

When will DiamondRock (NYSE:DRH) next have senior debt maturities after the refinancing?

Following the repayments, the company expects no debt maturities until January 2028.

What are the key maturities and sizes in DiamondRock's updated Credit Facility?

Facility includes a $400M revolver (Jan 2031), a $500M term loan (Jan 2029) and two $300M term loans (Jan 2030 maturities).

Did DiamondRock (NYSE:DRH) already repay any mortgages in 2025?

Yes; mortgages securing the Worthington Renaissance Fort Worth and Hotel Clio totaling about $125.0M were repaid in May and July 2025.

Will DiamondRock's term loans have prepayment penalties after the amendment?

No; the term loans are stated to be prepayable at any time without prepayment penalty.