Hedge Fund Anson Builds Stake in Twilio, Pushes for Sale

Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson might have breathed a sigh of relief when the leader of tech investing at Legion Partners, an activist hedge fund that had agitated for change at Lawson’s software company, left for another fund.

But the investor picked up where he left off, leading his new employer, Anson Funds, to buy a stake in Twilio. Anson is urging the company to sell itself or divest its data and applications business, according to a letter Anson sent to Twilio’s board of directors that The Information viewed.

Now Twilio will have to deal with shareholder pressure from two activists with small positions in the stock: Legion still holds its stake and is continuing to push for changes at Twilio, according to a person familiar with the matter.