Sinch Takes On Rival Twilio, Acquires Inteliquent For $1.14 Billion

Swedish communication platform as service (CPaaS) leader Sinch has acquired Inteliquent, the largest voice communications provider in the US, in a $1.140 billion deal to further solidify its leadership in the US and global cloud-based voice communications markets. 

Sinch enables enterprise customers, including 8 of the world’s ten largest technology companies, to manage all of their omnichannel offerings, such as social media, email, and websites with interactive chats, chatbots, messaging apps, and phone calls. The acquisition of Inteliquent, Sinch’s fifth in the past year, has helped Sinch surge ahead of competitors like Twilio, Vonage, and Plivo.

“Inteliquent serves the largest and most demanding voice customers in America with superior quality backed by a fully-owned network across the entire US. Our joint strengths in voice and messaging provide a unique position to grow our business and power a superior customer experience for our customers,” said Oscar Werner, CEO of Sinch.

Inteliquent, the Chicago-based voice communications giant, serves enterprises and other communication service providers. It has an extensive API-offering that empowers businesses to acquire phone numbers and embed voice calling into their business models. It offers Communications-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) for API-based services to provide voice calling and phone numbers. It also offers traditional Infrastructure-as-a-Service with off-net call termination and toll-free numbers for telecom companies.  

See More: SAP Digital Interconnect acquired by Sinch for $244M

Inteliquent’s communications platform is a fully redundant, geo-diverse, and carrier-grade tier 1 network connected to major telecom carriers. Covering over 94% of the U.S population, the platform handles more than 300 billion minutes of voice calling per year. The company claims to be the most prominent voice carrier in North America and has registered more than 100 million active phone numbers on behalf of its customers.

“We’re excited about the tremendous opportunities this combination unlocks, expanding the services we can provide to our customers. Combining our leading voice offering with Sinch’s global messaging capabilities truly positions us for leadership in the rapidly developing market for cloud communications,” said Inteliquent CEO Ed O’Hara.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Sinch enjoys a current market cap of $13 billion and offers voice communications solutions to organizations in over 40 countries. The company’s near-term goal is to attain undisputed leadership in the CPaaS segment by bringing businesses closer to every mobile phone on the planet through mobile messaging, voice, and video.

In pursuit of its goal, Sinch focuses on expanding its reach to new regions and delivering unparalleled customer experience by leveraging its current financial backing. It recently acquired ACL in India for $70 million and bought SAP’s digital interconnect business for $244 million to expand its reach to the San Francisco Bay area.

See More: Twilio Grabs CDP Startup Segment in $3.2B Buy. Is the Match Promising? 

The acquisitionOpens a new window of Inteliquent is also Sinch’s second in February alone. This month, Sinch also acquired Brazillian messaging platform Wavy and merged it with its TWW business to become the leading cloud communications platform in Latin America. Sinch acquired TWW, Brazil’s leading provider of mobile business messaging, in late 2019 to establish its footprint in the region. 

Meanwhile, Twilio, Sinch’s top competitor in cloud communications, also acquired SendGrid and Segment to exploit the increasing reliance on communication platforms in recent days. Thanks to the rapid adoption of cloud communications solutions in 2020, the company’s revenue jumped 55%Opens a new window compared to 2019 figures, touching $1.76 billion. Its fourth-quarter revenue was also up 65% Year-Over-Year to touch $548 million. Twilio forecasts growth of between 44% to 47% in 2021 and targets up to $536 million in Q1 revenue.

Will the acquisition of Inteliquent help Sinch trounce Twilio in the cloud communications genre? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!