The computing companies are joining forces.
Cloud computing company Twilio announced today that they are acquiring customer data management company Segment. The deal has been officially signed, and the acquisition is projected to formally go through around Q4 2020 for the price of $3.2 billion in Twilio stock.
According to Twilio, a common problem they face is the existence of “data silos,” a situation wherein a specific type of data (customer data, in their case) is either withheld or isolated by an external party. This makes their marketing process difficult, as they don’t have a complete set of customer data to draw on. Segment will, in the words of Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, help to remedy these problems.
“Data silos destroy great customer experiences,” Lawson said in the acquisition announcement. “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.”
Segment’s co-founder and CEO, Peter Reinhardt, seemed equally excited about the new partnership. “Together, Twilio and Segment have an incredible opportunity to build the customer engagement platform of the future,” Reinhardt said. “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.”
On the news of the acquisition, Twilio’s stock values rose 2.5%, briefly reaching an all-time high for the company at a $322.68 per share valuation. This is the latest in a series of stock booms for Twilio, who have seen their valuation increase 211% in the last year.
