TLDR
- HubSpot named co-founder Brian Halligan CEO, replacing Yamini Rangan.
- The stock was up about 7% by late morning, after a 9% jump before the open.
- CFO Kate Bueker will retire, and Adobe’s Karen Burgess takes over Feb. 11, 2027.
- Full-year 2026 EPS guidance of $13.59 to $13.61 was reaffirmed.
- The stock is down 50% so far this year.
HubSpot (HUBS) stock climbed on Thursday after the company handed the top job back to its co-founder. Brian Halligan replaces Yamini Rangan as CEO, and the stock was up about 7% by late morning.
It was a rough day for tech. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both traded lower, with a leadership crisis at a major chipmaker weighing on sentiment.
HubSpot had jumped as much as 9% before the open. The gain cooled once regular trading began, but the stock stayed green.
The stock still has ground to make up. It was down 50% for the year as of Wednesday.
Halligan Takes Back the Wheel
Halligan co-founded HubSpot in 2005 with Chief Technology Officer Dharmesh Shah. He ran the company as CEO for 16 years and has been on the board since 2005.
Rangan is leaving both the CEO role and the board, effective Thursday. She will stay through Dec. 1 to help with the handoff.
Halligan calls the move a “refounding.” Board chair Lorrie Norrington said the board is united behind it.
He told Bloomberg he does not want HubSpot swallowed by a private equity firm or left to shrink. He wants to rebuild and reimagine it.
He was blunt about the latest results too. “I don’t know if you looked at the last earnings, but the numbers aren’t great,” he said.
Halligan hinted that near-term financial goals may have won out over product work. He plans to rework product, go-to-market and company culture.
A New Finance Chief Is Coming
CFO Kate Bueker will retire in February 2027. The company described the retirement as long planned.
Karen Burgess, a senior vice president and CFO of Adobe’s Creativity & Productivity unit, joins HubSpot on Nov. 30. She starts as executive vice president of finance and becomes CFO on Feb. 11, 2027.
Bueker will move into an advisory role through Dec. 31, 2027.
Rangan’s tenure began in September 2021. Customers grew from 135,000 to more than 311,000 over that time, and revenue rose from $1.3 billion to an expected $3.7 billion in 2026.
The change follows a restructuring in October. HubSpot cut about 660 jobs, roughly 7% of its workforce, with Rangan saying the goal was a flatter company with fewer management layers.
HubSpot also reaffirmed its fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 guidance from Nov. 4. Full-year EPS guidance of $13.59 to $13.61 compares with a Wall Street consensus of $11.84, according to Investing.com.
