Email marketing company SendGrid, one of Denver’s largest tech companies, was acquired late Monday by Twilio, a San Francisco-based cloud communications platform, in a reported $2 billion all stock deal, the companies announced.
Twilio will acquire SendGrid in an effort to expand their product line. SendGrid is a cloud based email delivery platform that sends mass emails for clients, like AirBnB and Uber.
“Increasingly, our customers are asking us to solve all of their strategic communications challenges - regardless of channel. Email is a vital communications channel for companies around the world, and so it was important to us to include this capability in our platform," said Jeff Lawson, Twilio's co-founder and chief executive officer.
During a conference call to announce the deal, Lawson said SendGrid would continue to run as an independent unit with the existing management team intact.
"We’re excited to add the SendGrid talent to the Twilio family. SendGrid’s business is working quite well, and we have no intention of disrupting that motion," he said.
In a statement, Sameer Dholakia, SendGrid’s chief executive officer, said the two companies have long shared a common goal.
“Our two companies have always shared a common goal - to create powerful communications experiences for businesses by enabling developers to easily embed communications into the software they are building. Our mission is to help our customers deliver communications that drive engagement and growth, and this combination will allow us to accelerate that mission for our customers,” he said.
According to the Denver Business Journal, SendGrid raised $131 million selling 8.2 million shares in its IPO in 2017. Shares of the company increased 15 percent on the news of the acquisition Monday. Shares of Twilio dropped 4 percent.
In the terms of the deal, Twilio will pay 14 percent premium on SendGrid's common stock, which equates to approximately $36.92 per share based on yesterday's closing prices.
