The Key Players At Twilio, Which Just Bought Segment For $3 Billion

Twilio will pay $3.2 billion in an all-stock deal to acquire Segment, a tech startup that provides customer data infrastructure to help organizations better control the movement of customer data for applications like marketing.

The acquisition, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, is expected to close in before the end of the year. The deal will make Segment a division of Twilio and help spearhead the company’s wider move into customer engagement services.

Cloud companies experienced a spike in demand since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many businesses to rapidly adopt cloud services to enable employees to better work remotely.

In a press release, Jeff Lawson, co-founder and CEO of Twilio, said, “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.”

The integration of Segment’s business into Twilio’s operations may be smoother than most as two of Segment’s c-suite execs are Twilio veterans. Sandra Smith, Segment’s CFO, served as Twilio’s VP of Financial Planning and Analysis for 5 years before she jumped ship in 2018. Additionally, Colleen Coolidge, who had worked as Twilio’s Head of Security, joined Segment as Chief Information Security Officer in 2017.

On Twilio’s side of the deal, here are a few key executives that will ensure the marriage of the two companies goes on without a hitch and keep the company growing.

Right of the bat, Chief People Officer Christy Lake will be responsible for more than just the adjustment from one HR system to another, she will crucial to ensuring the two companies come together culturally. Without this mesh of values and mission, the company could risk a lack of buy-in from its new employees, inhibiting the free flow of ideas.

While Lake handles the integration of people and teams, Sara Varni, the CMO at Twilio, will help the company integrate Segment's offerings into Twilio's own product portfolio. She is responsible for growing its community of developers and pushing the company into the enterprise market. Prior to Twilio, Sara was SVP of Marketing at Salesforce where she was responsible for the go-to-market strategy for Sales Cloud. This experience could be especially useful as the company plots its move further into customer engagement services.

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