Just Eat Takeaway buys Grubhub for $7.3 billion to enter US market

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: The biggest loser here appears to be Uber Technologies. As the publication highlights, Uber had been in acquisition talks with Grubhub for months and was reportedly close to agreeing on a price. Concerns over whether or not regulators would approve the deal and what would happen if the deal was announced but fell through ultimately kept both parties at bay and opened the door for Just Eat Takeaway to swoop in for the steal.

Amsterdam-based online food delivery service Just Eat Takeaway is expanding in a big way. The company has agreed to purchase US-based Grubhub Inc. in a deal valued at $7.3 billion.

As Bloomberg notes, Just Eat Takeaway will pay $75.15 per share as part of the all-stock deal. Grubhub closed just shy of $60 a share on Wednesday afternoon.

Food delivery services were one of the few categories of business that saw an uptick in usage during Covid-19 lockdown orders. Still, it’s a cutthroat industry with thin profit margins as competitors jockey for contracts with restaurants and fight for customers.

A spokesperson for Uber told Bloomberg that the company believes consolidation is the way forward for the industry but added that they were not interested in “doing any deal, at any price, with any player.”

Matt Maloney, Grubhub’s chief executive officer, will join Just Eat Takeaway’s board and run its business in North America. Just Eat Takeaway founder Jitse Groen said he and Maloney are the only two remaining food delivery veterans in the sector, “having started our respective businesses at the turn of the century, albeit on two different continents.”

Masthead credit: XanderSt

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85590-eat-takeaway-buys-grubhub-73-billion-enter-us.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Food delivery services were one of the few categories of business that saw an uptick in usage during Covid-19 lock-down orders. Still, it’s a cutthroat industry with thin profit margins as competitors jockey for contracts with restaurants and fight for customers.

An interesting statistic but the real question is how many of these orders are over this type service vs. those that advertise on their own. With the profit margin on food being rather slim, one has to wonder how they can turn a good profit, especially in a market with so many people out of work!

 

[Lounds]

What a stupid move, this is just going to drive the price of takeaway food up meaning less sales for the business owners and less overall profit for JustEat.

 

[R00sT3R]

What a stupid move, this is just going to drive the price of takeaway food up meaning less sales for the business owners and less overall profit for JustEat.

Its all cyclical, right now we're in a consolidation & mergers phase, but eventually this new group will get greedy, try and force the restaurants into reduced fees and that will spur a new competitor to enter the market..