Twilio, Set to Lose Supervoting Protection Next Month, Has Been Meeting With Activist

Activist investor Legion Partners, which owns a stake in Twilio, has met several times with the company’s board of directors and management, urging them to make changes to the board and consider divestitures, among other moves, according to people familiar with the matter.

The conversations come at a critical moment for the $11.5 billion communications software company. Its use of supervoting shares, which gives CEO and co-founder Jeff Lawson a voting stake of 21.8% even though he owns only 3.7% of the stock, is due to expire in less than a month under a longstanding arrangement. At that point, all the shares will combine to form one class, stripping Lawson of his big voting stake and potentially opening up the company to more pressure from stockholders. Other activist investors have evaluated Twilio as a potential target in the past, people familiar with the matter said, but the presence of supervoting shares has held them back.