Twilio Inc. (TWLO) soared 19% in Tuesday trading, following strong earnings that caught many analysts by surprise.
So what's next for Twilio's growth? Twilio's rapid ascent did not go unnoticed, with existing partners eyeing Twilio as a potential acquisition target, according to analysts.
The San Francisco-based tech unicorn has risen over the last decade from a startup helped along by angel investors like Shark Tank's Chris Sacca to an industry leader generating about $150 million in revenue last quarter.
Saleforce.com, Inc. (CRM) may be the "most logical" suitor, followed by Amazon (AMZN) and ServiceNow, Piper Jaffray speculated in a note dated June 25. The note explains that Salesforce is both an early investor in Twilio and a customer, lending it familiarity with the growth of the company and its products as they stand today.
Senior Research Analyst Alex Zukin explained that the potential for acquisition has precedent in an interview with Real Money.
"Microsoft bought Github instead of trying to build something similar," he said, noting that a company like Amazon might pursue the same strategy.
It is worth noting that Amazon currently provides "substantially all" of Twilio's cloud infrastructure, according to a May 9 10-Q release, making it already closely involved with Twilio.
With five times the developer base as its nearest competitor according to the Piper Jaffray report, an acquisition completed would catapult any potential suitor to the forefront of the cloud computing space.
