Twilio has long been on a quest (not a nod to the company’s game for developers) to build one of the world’s leading customer engagement platforms within the Communications Platform as a Service sector. Recently, the CPaaS company came one-step closer to rounding out that hope – with the acquisition of a data platform that could give tens of thousands of its customers a deeper look into their customers’ behaviors. The objective, presumably, to enable enterprises to better engage with said customers. In a statement, Twilio wrote the deal is worth a hefty sum, adding:
“We’ve entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Segment for approximately $3.2 billion”
The deal, worth close to $3.2 billion in Twilio Class A stock, will make Segment a division of Twilio with the duo’s board of directors both set to approve the pending transaction by December 31, 2020. This will likely have positive impacts on as well as speed up Twilio’s growth.
Thanks in large to COVID-19, customer service and experience now reign supreme, and Twilio plans to further profit from this concept with the intent of providing positive customer experiences for its extensive customer base. The deal would likely bring a host of new users over to the Twilio platform, which already boasts more than 190,000 active customer accounts as of Q2. Twelve subsequent years after being founded, now tech giant, Twilio, has made a name for itself, along with a lot of other decisive moves.
Twilio Flex, Twilio Frontline (in beta), its ‘verify’ platform, and Autopilot, which brings chatbot technology to customers who want to leverage artificial intelligence-powered bots are all developments of the past decade at Twilio. Focusing on a range of verticals, Twilio has seen a rise in the use of its telehealth solutions during the COVID-19 period, too.
There’s Twilio conversations, a platform that orchestrates omnichannel communications experiences, an offering that should have its time to shine even more throughout the duration of the pandemic. The organization has gotten into contact tracing, announcing it powers New York City’s contact-tracing efforts. The company is also in the IoT business.
Jeff Lawson, Co-founder, and CEO, Twilio, said the move comes at a time where data silos are “destroying great customer experiences.” The acquisition of Segment, he added, will allow developers and companies to break down such silos along with the ability to build a picture of their customers. According to Lawson:
“Combined with Twilio’s customer engagement platform, we can create more personalized, timely, and impactful engagement experience across customer service, marketing, analytics, product, and sales”
Twilio’s third-quarter 2020 earnings call is scheduled for October 26, 2020, at 2:00 PM Pacific Time but will the company meet the expectations of analysts? A question that remains to be answered.
Back in 2018, Twilio announced its intent to acquire leading email API platform Sendgrid in a deal valued at over $3 billion. The organization also recently wrapped up its annual developer conference, Twilio Signal, which focused on updates to its contact center, data analytics, and IoT-based solutions. Check out UC Today‘s extended coverage of Signal 2020 digital.
