Twilio adds email to platform with acquisition

Twilio, a cloud communications platform provider, has completed its previously announced acquisition of SendGrid, an email API platform.

This transaction is valued at approximately USD$3 billion.

Based on the closing price of Twilio Class A common stock on Jan. 31, 2019 and the exchange ratio of 0.485 shares of Twilio Class A common stock per share of SendGrid common stock, SendGrid stockholders received approximately USD$53.99 of aggregate value per share of SendGrid common stock.

"Effective customer engagement is a strategic imperative for every company," says Twilio founder and CEO Jeff Lawson.

"With SendGrid now a part of Twilio, our goal is to provide a complete platform for every form of customer engagement. Through our mutual developer-first approach, we empower the builders of the world to create magical customer experiences unique to every interaction.

SendGrid will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Twilio and will continue to be led by SendGrid CEO Sameer Dholakia, reporting to Lawson.

"Together, we serve more than 140,000 active customer accounts and power more than 600 billion annualised interactions each year," Dholakia says.

"We have a shared vision, a shared model and shared values that will set us up for success. As we join forces today, I'm more confident than ever that we can accelerate our vision of creating one unquestioned platform of choice for developers and companies around the world and help them transform the way they engage with their customers.

Together, this acquisition will provide developers and companies:

• Access to a platform that manages all important communication channels: voice, messaging, video and now, email;
• Scalability and reliability to ensure their businesses are supported as they grow; and
• The ability to deliver consistent and personalised messaging based on the customers' preferred form of communication.

"The acquisition of SendGrid signals that Twilio is redefining its position in the market, enhancing its customer engagement capabilities with a comprehensive omnichannel offering," says 451 Research senior analyst Raul Castanon-Martinez.

"The deal should also help cement its position in the enterprise. This could give Twilio added momentum for expanding its customer base and support continued revenue growth.

With SendGrid, developers and businesses can use Twilio to reach their customers over any channel - voice, SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, video, and now email.

Companies can now use one platform to deliver communication, on their preferred channel, without having to set up different vendors for each approach.