‘SaaSpocalypse’ debate deepens as software stocks swing
Software stocks swung wildly after a week of mixed earnings and a low-priced acquisition, intensifying debate over whether AI-driven coding agents are eroding SaaS value. Italian buyout firm Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Airtable for under $1.3 billion — a fraction of its 2021 peak valuation — while earnings-related sell-offs hit HubSpot, Datadog and Figma. Conversely, Atlassian and Twilio rallied strongly after quarterly reports, and Cloudflare rose. Analysts and industry leaders offered differing views on how AI models and coding agents will affect renewals, product economics and investor sentiment across enterprise software.
- •Bending Spoons agreed to buy Airtable for less than $1.3 billion, far below Airtable's peak valuation of nearly $12 billion in 2021.
- •HubSpot slid 19% after its earnings report; Datadog sank 19% on Thursday, its steepest slump since its 2019 IPO.
- •Atlassian surged 35% after reporting its most profitable quarter since 2021; Twilio and Atlassian each rose well over 20% after reporting quarterly results; Cloudflare gained 5.6%.
