Twilio’s $3 Billion Acquisition of SendGrid is Finalized

Twilio announced this week that it has closed its acquisition of SendGrid, an email specialist, in an all-stock deal valued at $3 billion.

Previously the company had said the price would be $2 billion.

Closing of the transaction followed the approval by the stockholders of both companies at separate meetings on Jan. 30, 2019.

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 $53.99 of aggregate value per share of SendGrid common stock. As a result of the acquisition, shares of common stock of SendGrid ceased trading prior to the open of the market on Feb. 1, 2019 and will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

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

“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 Jeff Lawson, Twilio co-founder and CEO. “Through our mutual developer-first approach, we empower the builders of the world to create magical customer experiences unique to every interaction.”

“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,” said 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.”

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

“As the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise, Okta enables organizations to secure and manage their workforces while transforming their customers’ identity experience,” said Hector Aguilar, CTO of Okta. “We have built a seamless, easy-to-use service that leverages email, messaging and voice for notifications and verification actions with our customers. Twilio’s and SendGrid’s services truly are mission-critical to our business, making the acquisition an opportunity for greater innovation and long-term benefits to joint customers like Okta.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO) and have not been compensated for this article.