Highlights:

  • The acquisition will boost Twilio’s journey to construct the world’s best customer engagement platform trusted by companies and developers globally.
  • The data platform will offer a unified customer view to better understand consumer needs and engage them more efficiently.

With cloud companies booming during a pandemic, one of the latest public-company achievement tales is ready to create history by spending billions to acquire one of the start-ups, Segment. Segment is a leading customer data infrastructure (CDI) company.

Twilio Inc. recently publicized its plan to acquire Segment for about USD 3.2 billion in Twilio Class A common stock, on a fully diluted and cash-free, debt-free basis. The transaction is anticipated to close by the fourth quarter of 2020.

Jeff Lawson, Co-Founder and CEO at Twilio Inc., commented: “Data silos destroy great customer experiences.” Further, he added, “Segment lets developers and companies break down those silos and build a complete picture of their customer. Combined with Twilio’s Customer Engagement Platform, we can create more personalized, timely, and impactful engagement across customer service, marketing, analytics, product, and sales. We are thrilled to welcome Segment to the Twilio team.”

The companies that deliver enhanced experience to their consumers are the ones that know their consumer’s needs well and use customer data to offer more relevant interactions. By collaborating with market leaders in the cloud communication and customer data platform (CDP) spaces, Twilio can offer enhanced services by delivering a unified, single view that aids enterprises better understand their consumers to engage more efficiently.

Peter Reinhardt, CEO and Co-founder of Segment, commented: “Together, Twilio and Segment have an incredible opportunity to build the customer engagement platform of the future.” Further, he added, “We created Segment to help businesses set themselves apart in the digital age and deliver rich, connected customer experiences built on high-quality data. By joining forces and applying our customer data platform to Twilio’s engagement cloud, we’ll be able to make the entire customer experience seamless from end-to-end.”

The transaction will boost Twilio’s growth with a combined total addressable market of about USD 79 billion. Thus, bringing Twilio one step closer to become the world’s leading customer engagement platform, one among the trusted companies and developers globally.

Details regarding the acquisition

Twilio will acquire Segment in Twilio Class A stock for approximately USD 3.2 billion, and Segment will become a division of Twilio. The board of directors of Twilio and Segment has each ratified the transaction. The transaction is anticipated to close during the fourth quarter of Twilio’s fiscal year 2020, ending December 31, 2020, subject to the contentment of usual closing conditions.

Cloud companies have seen a rise in demand this year as more businesses use their services to meet the needs of working from home due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Brokerage services firm JP Morgan commented: “Twilio is a beneficiary of pandemic-catalyzed digital transformation acceleration.”

Segment said in September that it worked with more than 20,000 businesses, including Intuit, FOX, and Levi’s, employing more than 550 people. Segment insiders poised to receive Twilio shares might hope for a repeat of the history.