Twilio hires Qatalyst as an advisor against activist investors

Twilio Inc (NYSE: TWLO) has hired Qatalyst Partners as an advisor to work on its defense against activist investors. Its shares are roughly flat at writing.

Twilio is not considering a sale

Qatalyst is broadly known for helping companies with mergers and acquisitions.

But its involvement with Twilio is not a hint that the New York listed firm is considering a potential sale, as per people familiar with the matter.

The news arrives a couple weeks after Anson Funds revealed a stake in Twilio and urged the board to divest the data and applications unit. In response, the communications platform announced a layoff that primarily affected employees in that segment.

Twilio stock has gained 40% since late October but is still trading only at a fraction of its all-time high in early 2021.

Revenue growth is slowing fast at Twilio

Note that Qatalyst Partners has previously advised Segment as well – a notable customer data platform that Twilio acquired for $3.2 billion in 2020.

Other activist investors that have a stake in the California-based company include Legion Partners (read more). Neither Twilio nor Qatalyst has so far commented on the news on Wednesday.

The cloud company has been a target of shareholder activism in 2023 primarily because its revenue is losing steam fast. Annual revenue was up only 5.0% in its latest reported quarter versus 60% in the same three-month period of 2021.

Nonetheless, Wall Street currently has a consensus “overweight” rating on shares of the tech firm.