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Jeff Lawson CEO, Twilio

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Cloud software developer Twilio has hired Qatalyst Partners, the investment bank founded by Frank Quattrone, to advise on its defense against a group of activist investors, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Qatalyst, which previously advised Segment when Twilio purchased it for $3.2 billion in 2020, has been working on the activist matter for months, one of the the people said. Qatalyst launched an activist practice the same year as the Segment deal. While Qatalyst has typically worked to help companies sell themselves, this assignment is focused on the activist defense situation, said these people.

Both sources asked not to be named due to confidentiality. Twilio’s technology makes it easier for companies to communicate with customers and employees through mobile devices.

Twilio shares slipped as much as 1.8% in Wednesday morning trading, before paring back losses.

Legion Partners, an activist firm based in Los Angeles, took a stake in Twilio earlier this year and began pushing the company to overhaul its board and strategy. Legion’s engagement was led by Sagar Gupta, who left the firm in October for Anson Funds, where he amassed a similar stake.

Twilio shares have gained 45% this year, but that follows a miserable 2022, during which the company lost more than 80% of its value. The stock is 84% off its record reached in early 2021. Annual revenue growth slipped to just 5% in the most recent quarter down from over 30% in the same period last year and over 60% in the third quarter of 2021.

The activist groups have told Twilio it should at least sell an underperforming unit, its data and applications business, which includes Segment. Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, who co-founded the company in 2008, said last week that the company would lay off 5% of its employees, with the deepest cuts inside the data and applications unit.

The downsizing followed a corporate reorganization earlier this year that included layoffs amounting to 17% of Twilio’s staff.

Qatalyst is best known for its mergers and acquisitions practice rather than shareholder defense. One of the people familiar with the matter said the bank’s current involvement with Twilio is not a precursor to a sale of the company.

A spokesperson for Twilio declined to comment. Qatalyst did not respond to a request for comment.

Qatalyst was founded in 2008 by Quattrone, who stepped down as CEO in 2016 but remains executive chairman. The firm has advised on some of Silicon Valley’s largest recent deals, including Microsoft’s $28.1 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, Salesforce’s $29.2 billion purchase of Slack and Block’s $22 billion acquisition of Afterpay. Qatalyst also worked on Cisco’s pending $29.6 billion acquisition of Splunk and Adobe’s purchase of Figma, which is awaiting regulatory clearance.

Qatalyst’s activist practice is helmed by Peter Michelsen, who was hired in June 2020 from Goldman Sachs‘ activist advisory group. Michelsen says on his LinkedIn page that he advises “Qatalyst’s clients across all technology sectors on matters including activism defense, proxy fights, contested situations, defense preparedness and complex ESG matters.” ESG stands for environmental, social and corporate governance.

— CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.

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Google agrees to pay Texas $1.4 billion data privacy settlement

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Google agrees to pay Texas .4 billion data privacy settlement

A Google corporate logo hangs above the entrance to the company’s office at St. John’s Terminal in New York City on March 11, 2025.

Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

Google agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle allegations of violating the data privacy rights of state residents, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday.

Paxton sued Google in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users.

The attorney general said the settlement, which covers allegations in two separate lawsuits against the search engine and app giant, dwarfed all past settlements by other states with Google for similar data privacy violations.

Google’s settlement comes nearly 10 months after Paxton obtained a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to resolve claims of unauthorized use of biometric data by users of those popular social media platforms.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday.

“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” said Paxton.

“This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said the company did not admit any wrongdoing or liability in the settlement, which involves allegations related to the Chrome browser’s incognito setting, disclosures related to location history on the Google Maps app, and biometric claims related to Google Photo.

Castaneda said Google does not have to make any changes to products in connection with the settlement and that all of the policy changes that the company made in connection with the allegations were previously announced or implemented.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Castaneda said.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”

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Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

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Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

Omada Health smart devices in use.

Courtesy: Omada Health

Virtual care company Omada Health filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital health company that’s signaled its intent to hit the public markets despite a turbulent economy.

Founded in 2012, Omada offers virtual care programs to support patients with chronic conditions like prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension. The company describes its approach as a “between-visit care model” that is complementary to the broader health-care ecosystem, according to its prospectus.

Revenue increased 57% in the first quarter to $55 million, up from $35.1 million during the same period last year, the filing said. The San Francisco-based company generated $169.8 million in revenue during 2024, up 38% from $122.8 million the previous year.

Omada’s net loss narrowed to $9.4 million during its first quarter from $19 million during the same period last year. It reported a net loss of $47.1 million in 2024, compared to a $67.5 million net loss during 2023.

The IPO market has been largely dormant across the tech sector for the past three years, and within digital health, it’s been almost completely dead. After President Donald Trump announced a sweeping tariff policy that plunged U.S. markets into turmoil last month, taking a company public is an even riskier endeavor. Online lender Klarna delayed its long-anticipated IPO, as did ticket marketplace StubHub.

But Omada Health isn’t the first digital health company to file for its public market debut this year. Virtual physical therapy startup Hinge Health filed its prospectus in March, and provided an update with its first-quarter earnings on Monday, a signal to investors that it’s looking to forge ahead.

Omada contracts with employers, and the company said it works with more than 2,000 customers and supports 679,000 members as of March 31. More than 156 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, so there is a significant market opportunity, according to the company’s filing.

In 2022, Omada announced a $192 million funding round that pushed its valuation above $1 billion. U.S. Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Fidelity’s FMR LLC are the largest outside shareholders in the company, each owning between 9% and 10% of the stock.

“To our prospective shareholders, thank you for learning more about Omada. I invite you join our journey,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy said in the filing. “In front of us is a unique chance to build a promising and successful business while truly changing lives.”

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Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

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Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

Liz Reid, vice president, search, Google speaks during an event in New Delhi on December 19, 2022.

Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images

Testimony in Google‘s antitrust search remedies trial that wrapped hearings Friday shows how the company is calculating possible changes proposed by the Department of Justice.

Google head of search Liz Reid testified in court Tuesday that the company would need to divert between 1,000 and 2,000 employees, roughly 20% of Google’s search organization, to carry out some of the proposed remedies, a source with knowledge of the proceedings confirmed.

The testimony comes during the final days of the remedies trial, which will determine what penalties should be taken against Google after a judge last year ruled the company has held an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search.

The DOJ, which filed the original antitrust suit and proposed remedies, asked the judge to force Google to share its data used for generating search results, such as click data. It also asked for the company to remove the use of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones. 

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Google pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine on iPhones. It’s lucrative for Apple and a valuable way for Google to get more search volume and users.

Apple’s SVP of Services Eddy Cue testified Wednesday that Apple chooses to feature Google because it’s “the best search engine.”

The DOJ also proposed the company divest its Chrome browser but that was not included in Reid’s initial calculation, the source confirmed.

Reid on Tuesday said Google’s proprietary “Knowledge Graph” database, which it uses to surface search results, contains more than 500 billion facts, according to the source, and that Google has invested more than $20 billion in engineering costs and content acquisition over more than a decade.

“People ask Google questions they wouldn’t ask anyone else,” she said, according to the source.

Reid echoed Google’s argument that sharing its data would create privacy risks, the source confirmed.

Closing arguments for the search remedies trial will take place May 29th and 30th, followed by the judge’s decision expected in August.

The company faces a separate remedies trial for its advertising tech business, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.

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