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Both sources asked not to be named for confidentiality reasons. Twilio’s technology makes it easy for companies to connect with customers and employees through mobile devices.
Legion Partners, a Los Angeles-based technology firm, bought a stake in Twilio earlier this year and began pushing the company to overhaul its board and strategy. Legion’s engagement was led by Sagar Gupta, who left the company in October for Anson Funds, where he had accumulated a similar stake.
Twilio has gained a share of 45% this year, but after the 2022 disappointment, the company lost more than 80% of its value. The stock is 84% from its record reached at the beginning of 2021. The annual revenue growth fell to only 5% in the latest quarter from more than 30% in the same period last year and more than 60% in the third quarter of 2021.
The group has told Twilio that it has to sell a non-performing unit, its data and business applications, which includes the Group. Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, who founded the company in 2008, said last week that the company will lay off 5% of its workforce, with deep cuts in documents and applications.
The cuts follow a corporate restructuring earlier this year that included laying off about 17% of Twilio’s workforce.
Qatalyst is best known for its mergers and acquisitions model rather than shareholder protection. One of the people familiar with the matter said that the bank’s current involvement with Twilio is not the first thing in the sale of the company.
A spokesman for Twilio declined to comment. Qatalyst did not respond to a request for comment.
Qatalyst was founded in 2008 by Quattrone, who stepped down as CEO in 2016 but remains chairman. The firm has advised on some of Silicon Valley’s biggest deals, including Microsoft’s $28.1 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, Salesforce’s $29.2 billion acquisition of Slack and Block’s $22 billion acquisition of Afterpay. . Qatalyst also worked on Cisco’s pending $29.6 billion acquisition of Splunk and Adobe’s acquisition of Figma, which is pending regulatory approval.
Qatalyst’s practice is led by Peter Michelsen, who was hired in June 2020 from the investment advisory group of Goldman Sachs. Michelsen said in his LinkedIn page he advises Qatalyst’s “clients across all technology sectors on issues including cyber security, countermeasures, countermeasures, security preparedness and complex ESG issues.” ESG stands for environmental, social and corporate governance.
– CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
SEE: Twilio’s CEO says the company is focused on customers, not competitors