Twilio to Purchase Segment to Break Down Data Silos for Better Customer Engagement

Twilio’s star was already on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with far more communications taking place virtually, the company’s developer platform for communications -- the Twilio Customer Engagement Platform – is experiencing a stratospheric surge. Twilio’s programmable application program interfaces (APIs) are a set of building blocks developers can use to custom-build the customer experiences their customers are demanding.

The Twilio Customer Engagement Platform can be used to build nearly any digital experience, using diverse communications media such as SMS, WhatsApp, voice, video, email, and even Internet of Things (IoT) across the customer journey. Twilio currently powers communications for more than 190,000 businesses and enables nearly 932 billion human interactions every year.

Now, the company has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Segment for approximately $3.2 billion in Twilio Class A common stock, on a fully diluted and cash free, debt free basis. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020. Segment is a data platform that provides businesses with a unified customer view to better understand customers and engage with them more effectively.

“Data silos destroy great customer experiences,” said Jeff Lawson, co-founder and CEO of Twilio, in a statement about the acquisition. “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.”

Many companies find barriers to their goal of broadening and customizing the customer experience, often because information is typically spread across disparate systems and functions throughout an organization. Twilio plans to use the Segment acquisition to alleviate this pain for businesses by delivering a single, unified view that helps companies better understand their customers in order to engage more effectively, said the company.