Moez has raised Twilio’s Stock price from $42 to $110
Moez Kassam and Anson Funds started circling Twilio in 2023, back when the stock was hovering around $42.
The information provided in TADSummit’s Truth in Telecoms helped lead to $100M profit for Anson on Twilio. The stock price rise is because of hedge funds buying Twilio like Anson, Legion Partners, even Twilio itself, etc.
Johnny and I had discussed how little sense the $750M Syniverse investment made for Twiilio’s investors. I’d positioned Twilio as programmable communications, while Syniverse was a commoditized aggregator. It was diluting Twilio’s SaaS claims, buying an asset with less than half the margin.
It was the loss of $750M, which could be invested in Voice AI. Johnny saw it as irresponsible to be using investors’ funds to buy a minority stake in a private company with $1.3B in debt. Clearly the activist investors agreed, pressure was applied to the board, Jeff left, and Twilio focused on its financials, with the remarkable rise in stock price.
Remember, Syniverse lost T-Mobile US’s SMS aggregation business to Infobip in 2024. Objective proof that spamming Grandma has repercussions. My mobile service immediately improved as Syniverse was removed as T-Mobile US’s DCA (Direct Carrier Aggregator) and replaced by Infobip. Syniverse has depreciated given that and its other challenges through 2024, but it does not reflect in Twilio’s numbers.
I mention Moez Kassam, as he’s back with Anson Funds focused on Five9, looking to replay the Twilio $100M success. Through 2024 despite Five9’s revenue and margin growth the stock dropped from $80 to $30. A concern is AI will replace their agents / revenues, investor lawsuits, and ‘platform stability’ issues. Here’s a good discussion on the issues Five9 faces. Five9 will be a tougher project than Twilio.
Johnny pointed out Moez Kassam targeting Five9 and his extensive charitable work and got another like from Moez.
Five9 needs a stronger position on how AI helps grow their value to customers, and defends existing revenues. It’s a part of their armory, as we discussed in “TADSummit Panel Discussion. Are LLMs about to disrupt enterprise SaaS (Software as a Service)?” https://blog.tadsummit.com/2024/11/01/tadsummit-panel-discussion-are-llms-about-to-disrupt-enterprise-saas-software-as-a-service/
SaaS will evolve to include AI/LLMs
- LLMs are about to make enterprise SaaS even easier to set up and use.
- We’re entering a massive wave of automation through LLMs used in SaaS
- X does not replace Y, rather together we’re able to do more.
TADSummit’s focus on Truth from people whose survival depends on being right delivers understanding that investors can make money from.
Let’s jump back in time to Vonage, Legion Partners managed to sell them to Ericsson, at 6X the nearest offer. I explained why it was a bad deal for Ericsson, and Ericsson’s write-downs confirmed that. Please note the glowing CPaaS landscape mappings from some analysts on Vonage, just before the write-downs.
2025 is going to be an exciting year, reasons include:
- Bird is doing well and could be a surprise 2025 IPO. Robert Vis is a hero of our industry, demonstrating honesty and integrity, maybe that colors my perspective.
- There’s about $500B in private equity (PE) that needs to be either invested or returned in 2025, with another $500B raised over a 5 year period. There’s about one trillion dollars looking for investments! Cash is back, and PE is looking for deals in 2025.
- Infobip with the T-Mobile US win should be able to complete its IPO in 2025
- Route Mobile / Telesign / BICS (RMTS) needs to break out of its current orbit, drastically optimize costs, and deliver offers where cybersecurity is at its core, given its identity credentials across the world. Camara will fail for all the reasons OneAPI failed. However, it is generating awareness and demand in cybersecurity. RMTB could leapfrog that situation by breaking free from the herd.
2025 will be an exciting year, cash is back, with IPOs on the horizon that in 2023 we thought were lost. Moez has generated significant value for Twilio investors. Though Five9 is potentially a tougher problem than Twilio, his track record is already driving their stock price up. And there are lots more opportunities in programmable communications / telecoms, by focusing on honesty, integrity, the customer, and NOT following the herd.
TADSummit’s Truth in Telecoms is the place to get the honest insight you need for your business. Bottom-line: investors are making $100Ms from using the insights shared at TADSummit.
Moez is becoming the King Maker in Programmable Communications!