Dutch Messaging Startup Weighs Longshot Bid to Buy Twilio With Outside Investors

A Dutch messaging software startup is in talks with outside investors to raise money for a longshot bid to buy its much larger U.S. publicly traded competitor Twilio, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The Accel Partners-backed startup, which was known as MessageBird but just renamed itself Bird, could take advantage of the pressure Twilio has been under lately from at least two activist investors to make significant changes to its business or to put itself on the market. Twilio’s longtime chief executive recently stepped down. It’s unclear whether Bird has approached Twilio’s board of directors or formally hired advisers.