Google parent company Alphabet has abandoned its plans to acquire AI-powered customer platform HubSpot. The news was reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday and caused HubSpot’s stock to crash 12%.
Reportedly, Alphabet conducted its “due diligence” in exploring a deal for HubSpot earlier this year. The acquisition could have potentially been one of the largest, if not the largest, of the year, considering that HubSpot has a market valuation of $25.09 billion after the recent slide.
However, the two sides never actually got to a point to discuss the framework of a possible deal and have now decided to table the talks indefinitely. It is also unclear whether the deal would be approved by U.S. regulators, who have recently been pushing back on large tech deals.
HubSpot was founded in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. The company develops and markets software products used for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. It mainly has small and medium-sized businesses as its clients.
HubSpot has had a great start to 2024, reporting a 23% increase in revenue in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. This caused the company’s shares to rally all the way to the $682 mark in April.
However, HubSpot’s stock lost some of its momentum in the past months and has now taken another hit due to a failed sale to Alphabet. It closed at $492.31 per share on Wednesday.