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HubSpot shares plunged 12% on Wednesday following a report that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is no longer pursuing plans to acquire the software firm.
According to Bloomberg, Alphabet had been in talks with HubSpot earlier this year. However, the discussions did not advance to detailed due diligence, as reported by sources familiar with the matter.
Representatives for both HubSpot and Alphabet did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Regulatory pressures in the U.S. and abroad have hindered recent acquisitions by major technology companies. Amazon recently abandoned its planned acquisition of iRobot, a robot vacuum maker, and it took Microsoft 20 months to finalize its purchase of game publisher Activision Blizzard.
HubSpot creates software that automates marketing and customer outreach for businesses, primarily small and medium-sized enterprises. Acquiring HubSpot would have enabled Google to expand its revenue streams from business software, supplementing its cloud infrastructure and other non-cloud ventures under Alphabet.
Google’s cloud division achieved profitability in 2023 after years of significant investment.
HubSpot has been outpacing Google’s growth, reporting revenue increases exceeding 20% for the past six quarters and over 30% before that. In the first quarter, HubSpot’s sales rose by 23% to $617.4 million.
Yamini Rangan, a former executive at Dropbox and Workday, has led HubSpot since 2021. In March, she highlighted the challenging business environment, noting that customers were requiring more proof of concept before committing to purchase decisions.
In contrast, Alphabet has not seen growth above 20% since early 2022, with revenue in the latest period increasing by 15% year-over-year to $80.54 billion.
Google is already under regulatory scrutiny. The U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general have accused Google of violating antitrust laws through exclusive agreements with phone manufacturers and browser companies to make its search engine the default choice for consumers.
Even after Wednesday’s decline, HubSpot maintains a market capitalization of $25 billion, making it twice the size of Google’s largest acquisition, the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2011.