Cloud communications company Twilio recently completed the $3 billion acquisition of SendGrid, which is a leading email API platform. The deal was approved by the stockholders of both companies at separate meetings on January 30, 2019. The companies originally announced the acquisition back in October 2018.
Based on the closing price of Twilio Class A common stock on January 31, 2019, and the exchange ratio of 0.485 shares of Twilio Class A common stock per share of SendGrid common stock, SendGrid stockholders are going to receive $53.99 of aggregate value per share of SendGrid common stock. Shares of SendGrid’s common stock ceased trading prior to the open of the market on February 1, 2019, and the company is no longer going to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Photo: SendGrid
“Effective customer engagement is a strategic imperative for every company. With SendGrid now a part of Twilio, our goal is to provide a complete platform for every form of customer engagement,” said Twilio co-founder and CEO Jeff Lawson in a statement. “Through our mutual developer-first approach, we empower the builders of the world to create magical customer experiences unique to every interaction.”
Going forward, SendGrid will be operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of Twilio and it will continue to be led by SendGrid CEO Sameer Dholakia. Through the acquisition, the companies will provide developers with access to a platform for managing all important communications channels: voice, messaging, video, and email.
“Together, we serve more than 140,000 active customer accounts and power more than 600 billion annualized interactions each year. We have a shared vision, a shared model and shared values that will set us up for success,” added Dholakia. “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.”
Zillow’s VP of Strategic Initiatives Matthew Daimler pointed out that the real estate search engine is a customer of both Twilio and SendGrid. And Daimler said that they could not be “more excited for two of the leading customer communication platforms in the market to come together.” By having one seamless customer communication platform offering omnichannel engagement transforms the way Zillow interacts with their customers.
Okta’s CTO Hector Aguilar also pointed out that Twilio’s and SendGrid’s services are “mission-critical” to their business. Okta is the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise, which makes it easier for companies to manage their workforces.
According to Forbes, Twilio makes it easier for businesses like Airbnb, Netflix, and Uber to reach customers through text messages and push notifications. And SendGrid’s APIs enables companies to reach customers through automated emails and processes more than 45 billion emails every month.
