Tata Communications has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Kaleyra, to empower global enterprises to offer personalised experiences to their customers.
Kaleyra — which has global offices in the United States, Italy and India — is a global omnichannel integrated communication services provider with a set of proprietary platforms, offering targeted personalisation through messaging, video, push notifications, e-mail and voice-based services, and chatbots.
With this transaction, Tata Communications will gain an industry-proven platform with strong capabilities and scale. Kaleyra brings a stronghold in the business communications market in banking and financial services, retail and digital commerce industries across global markets, in addition to a strong team with expertise in technology, engineering and research and development.
Tata Communications will also benefit from Tier 1 carrier connections in the US, ready connectors to third-party platforms, and video services without the need for additional software plugins.
The resulting business will leverage Tata Communications large base of enterprise customers worldwide including 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, extensive mobile network operator (MNO) connections and global expansion opportunities. It will benefit from the global digital ecosystem enabler that powers today’s fast-growing digital economy in more than 190 countries and territories.
Under the terms of the agreement, Tata Communications has agreed to acquire Kaleyra in a cash only transaction, at a price per share of US$7.25 for a total consideration to Kaleyra shareholders of approximately $100 million and the assumption of all outstanding debt.
“With this investment in Kaleyra, we will accelerate our push into the customer interactions platform market and fortify our global CommTech position,” said A.S. Lakshminarayanan, CEO of Tata Communications.
Dario Calogero, founder and the CEO of Kaleyra, said that when they launched 24 years ago with my co-founder Simone Fubini, he could hardly envision that they would grow from a small Italian startup, to global expansion, a publicly listed NYSE company, and now working together with a great technology leader like Tata Communications.
