HubSpot takeover by Alphabet ‘highly unlikely,’ says Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer analyst Ken Wong sees Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) acquiring HubSpot (HUBS) as a “highly unlikely outcome.” There is some potential value-add pairing Hubspot’s customer engagement platform with Google Workspace and also strategic benefit of housing content creation and advertising under one roof to unify a customer’s marketing strategy, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, the firm points out the “irony” of Google potentially pursuing a platform that has sought to flip the 90/10 ratio of outbound versus inbound marketing. It expects the potential transaction reported earlier by Reuters to garner heightened regulatory scrutiny. Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating on HubSpot with a $725 price target.