Incident Details: A significant breach involving Salesloft’s Drift app has led to a global cybersecurity crisis, impacting major companies including Google. Approximately 2.5 million Gmail users may have been affected by this breach, which enabled hackers to send convincing scam messages to users.
Method of Attack: The breach was initiated when hackers exploited Salesloft’s integration with Google’s systems. They used social engineering tactics to manipulate a Google employee into authorizing a malicious app, allowing access to sensitive data related to Google’s small and medium-sized business customers.
Data Compromised
Types of Data Accessed: While passwords were not compromised, attackers gained access to contact names, business details, internal notes, and metadata associated with Gmail communications. This information is now being utilized to craft deceptive emails and security alerts.
Impact on Users: Victims are being targeted with requests to reset passwords or approve login codes, which could grant attackers full access to their Gmail accounts.
Response from Google
Official Confirmation: Google has acknowledged the breach and issued a global alert, advising users to change their passwords, enable two-factor authentication (2FA), and refrain from clicking on links from unknown sources.
Ongoing Threats
Involvement of ShinyHunters: The ShinyHunters hacking group has been actively stealing data from Salesforce customers since early 2025, employing social engineering tactics to deceive employees into installing fake applications that bypass security measures.
Targeted Companies: In addition to Google, other notable brands affected by this campaign include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Chanel, Adidas, Workday, Qantas, and Allianz Life.
Market Implications
Salesforce Stock Performance: Salesforce (CRM) has received a Moderate Buy consensus rating, with 28 Buys, 10 Holds, and one Sell in the past three months. The current stock price is $342.18, with an average price target suggesting a potential upside of 35.02%.
Wall Street analysts forecast GOOG stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for GOOG is 336.08 USD with a low forecast of 255.00 USD and a high forecast of 400.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
15 Analyst Rating
Wall Street analysts forecast GOOG stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for GOOG is 336.08 USD with a low forecast of 255.00 USD and a high forecast of 400.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
14 Buy
1 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 330.840
Low
255.00
Averages
336.08
High
400.00
Current: 330.840
Low
255.00
Averages
336.08
High
400.00
Raymond James
Outperform -> Strong Buy
upgrade
$315 -> $400
2026-01-22
New
Reason
Raymond James
Price Target
$315 -> $400
AI Analysis
2026-01-22
New
upgrade
Outperform -> Strong Buy
Reason
Raymond James upgraded Alphabet to Strong Buy from Outperform with a price target of $400, up from $315. The firm's updated bottom-up analysis of Google Cloud Platform and Search drives a material upward revision to 2026-2027 estimates, with 2027 revenue now at the high end of the Street and supporting the upgrade, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Improving AI Stack momentum is expected to fuel upward revisions and position Alphabet as a high-quality top-line AI acceleration story, with fundamentals, rather than multiple reversion, driving mega-cap Internet performance in 2026.
BTIG
BTIG
Neutral
maintain
2025-12-17
Reason
BTIG
BTIG
Price Target
2025-12-17
maintain
Neutral
Reason
BTIG says speculation yesterday that Google's (GOOG) for-sale home listings at the top of mobile searches have been pulled sparked "some relief" for Zillow Group (ZG). However, BTIG was able to surface the mobile for-sale listings test in a search this morning, with the listings still including data from the same platform as before along with sponsored links paid for by brokers, the analyst tells investors in a research note. "This saga may not be over just yet," according to the firm. BTIG believes that "while scary, this isn't relevant to near-term estimates." It keeps a Neutral rating on Zillow.
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TD Cowen
Buy
maintain
$335 -> $350
2025-12-12
Reason
TD Cowen
Price Target
$335 -> $350
2025-12-12
maintain
Buy
Reason
TD Cowen raised the firm's price target on Alphabet (GOOG) to $350 from $335 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm increased the company's search estimates on its "positive" U.S. survey data. The data show ramping Gemini chatbot usage following the launch of Gemini 3, continued increases in search engagement driven by AI Mode and AI Overviews usage, and increasing share of ChatGPT users that are also using Gemini, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
William Blair
William Blair
maintain
$28.83
2025-12-11
Reason
William Blair
William Blair
Price Target
$28.83
2025-12-11
maintain
Reason
William Blair took a "sober look" at Warby Parker's (WBRY) partnership with Google (GOOG, GOOGL). Warby shares are down 3% to $28.83 in afternoon trading. In the early days, "maybe" Google's artificial intelligence glasses can research $20M in annual sales, "but certainly not in 2026," the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says it has heard of "some relatively aggressive assumptions" on what the Google partnership with Warby Parker for AI-enabled glasses could contribute from a revenue and margin standpoint in recent weaks. Blair analyzed the potential for the glasses relative to the partnership between Meta (META) and EssilorLuxottica for the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The firm points out that EssilorLuxottica has 55-times the amount of physical stores compared to Warby Parker. At an average price point of $450, assuming the Google AI glasses are priced competitively to Ray-Ban Meta, this would support total unit sales of 45,000, Blair estimates.
About GOOG
Alphabet Inc. is a holding company. The Company's segments include Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. The Google Services segment includes products and services such as ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. The Google Cloud segment includes infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers. Its Other Bets segment is engaged in the sale of healthcare-related services and Internet services. Its Google Cloud provides enterprise-ready cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. Google Cloud Platform provides access to solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, including its AI infrastructure, Vertex AI platform, and Gemini for Google Cloud; cybersecurity, and data and analytics. Google Workspace includes cloud-based communication and collaboration tools for enterprises, such as Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Meet.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
