Report: Alphabet Backs Out of HubSpot Acquisition Talks

Google parent Alphabet has reportedly ended its efforts to acquire customer relationship management (CRM) company HubSpot.

While Alphabet communicated its interest in a potential deal with HubSpot earlier this year, the discussions didn’t progress to the due diligence stage, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (July 10), citing unnamed sources.

Neither Alphabet nor HubSpot immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

HubSpot shares fell as much as 19% Wednesday in their biggest drop since 2020, according to the report.

A deal between the two companies would have been among the largest deals for a tech company this year, the report said. After Wednesday drop in its share price, HubSpot had a market value of about $25 billion.

At the same time, a deal probably would have faced lengthy reviews by U.S. antitrust regulators, per the report.

Reuters reported on April 4 that Alphabet was considering making a bid to acquire HubSpot, saying that the firm had met with investment bankers to discuss how much it should offer and whether it would face challenges from regulators.

Alphabet did not comment on that report, while HubSpot told Reuters that it “does not comment on rumors or speculation.”

The report said at the time that an acquisition of HubSpot would expand Google’s offerings in the CRM market; create new opportunities for its cloud computing business; and provide new areas of growth at a time when Alphabet’s advertising business is facing greater competition.

Bloomberg reported on May 9 that Google was in continuing talks with HubSpot about acquiring that company, with the companies having discussed the potential terms of a deal.

At the same time, the report said the deliberations were ongoing and there was no certainty the two companies would come to an agreement.

In April, HubSpot partnered with Stripe to optimize digital payments for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

“SMBs on the HubSpot platform manage their sales and customer data in the CRM, and they use Sales Hub to nurture their deals,” Shilpa Dhar, senior vice president and general manager of commerce at HubSpot, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in April. “Now, if SMBs start using the Commerce Hub for payments and billing solutions, all of their data across all customers and transactions is together in one place.”