Alphabet withdraws from HubSpot acquisition talks

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has reportedly ended its bid to acquire customer relationship management (CRM) company HubSpot.

Alphabet expressed interest in a potential deal with HubSpot earlier this year, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday (July 10), citing unnamed sources, but talks did not progress to the due diligence stage.

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

HubSpot shares fell as much as 19% on Wednesday, its biggest decline since 2020, according to the report.

A deal between the two companies would be one of the largest deals for a tech company this year, the report said. After Wednesday’s share price plunge, HubSpot had a market value of about $25 billion.

At the same time, the deal would likely be subject to lengthy scrutiny by U.S. antitrust authorities, according to the report.

Reuters reported on April 4 that Alphabet was considering making a takeover bid for HubSpot. The company had met with investment bankers to discuss the size of the offer and potential regulatory challenges.

Alphabet has not commented on the reports, while HubSpot told Reuters it “does not comment on rumors and speculation.”

The report said at the time that the acquisition of HubSpot would expand Google’s offering in the CRM market, create new opportunities for the company’s cloud computing business and open up new areas of growth at a time when Alphabet’s advertising business faces increasing competition.

Bloomberg reported on May 9 that Google is still in talks with HubSpot to acquire the company. The companies have discussed potential terms of a deal.

At the same time, the report stated that talks were ongoing and there was no certainty that the two companies would reach an agreement.

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

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