May 23 Reuters Google parent Alphabet39;s potential acquisition of HubSpot, a U.S. marketing software maker with a market value of 31 billion, would boost its ability to compete against Microsoft in offering cloudbased applications to companies.

Reuters reported last month that Google was exploring an offer for HubSpot. Such a deal would be Google39;s biggest, expanding its products and applications that serve businesses, analysts and investment bankers said in interviews.

Google is already challenging the dominance of Microsoft39;s Office platform through its Google Workspace collaboration offerings. Buying HubSpot would make Google a competitor in the socalled customer relationship management sector, which Microsoft caters to with its Dynamics 365 products, said Cowen analyst Derrick Wood.

It does appear that Google has aspirations to try to take market share from Microsoft in the productivity suite, and they can use HubSpot to bundle applications together for clients, Wood said.

Representatives for Google, HubSpot and Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment.

HubSpot, which makes marketing software for small and mediumsized businesses, is seeking ways to maintain sales growth in the face of a wider economic slowdown.

HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan said on the company39;s firstquarter earnings call this month that client demand had weakened, as small businesses fret about the economic impact of high interest rates.

HubSpot has maintained growth despite…