Cloud communications specialist Twilio made a splashy acquisition in October, picking up customer data platform Segment for $3.2 billion in an all-stock deal.
Both San Francisco-based companies specialize in application programming interfaces (APIs) that make collecting and consolidating customer data (Segment) and communicating via digital channels (Twilio) easier than building this functionality from scratch.
“Data silos destroy great customer experiences,” Jeff Lawson, co-founder and CEO of Twilio, said in a statement. “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.”
Twilio hopes that by bringing Segment’s rich customer data together with its variety of engagement channels it can enable something close to personalized customer outreach at scale — the modern day holy grail for many marketeers.
SOURCE Computer World
