Just Eat Snap’s up Grubhub for £5.8bn

Just Eat beat Uber in its bid to snap up Grubhub and paid €6.49bn (£5.8bn) to create the world’s largest food delivery service outside China.

Just Eat Takeaway, the European food delivery service, has agreed to buy the US-based app Grubhub for €6.49bn (£5.8bn) in a deal that would create the world’s largest food delivery service outside China. This deal gives the online food delivery giant access to over 70 million customers worldwide.

Confirmation of the all-stock takeover deals a blow to Uber, which has its own food delivery business and was reportedly in late discussions with Grubhub. The tie-up will give the Netherlands-based Just Eat Takeaway access to the lucrative food delivery market in the US, with the combined business able to serve customers in 25 countries. Along with the US, these include some of the world’s most profitable food delivery markets – the UK, Netherlands and Belgium.

Ride-hailing firm Uber approached Chicago-based Grubhub in May this year for an all-stock deal that fell apart this week. In a statement, Uber said the food delivery industry needs consolidation, but “that doesn’t mean we are interested in doing any deal, at any price, with any player.”

Media reports about the Uber offer prompted Just Eat Takeaway to reach out with its own offer, Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney told Reuters in a phone interview. Just Eat only recently acquired Takeaway, in January, for $7.8 billion. Maloney has known Just Eat Takeaway’s billionaire CEO Jitse Groen since 2007, and the companies have similar models as marketplaces for customers to find restaurants and order from them, Maloney said.

The European firm presented an offer “at a price that made the decision very easy,” Grubhub’s Maloney said. The deal also provides Grubhub “financial strength and flexibility.” Grubhub’s stock price rose nearly 6% in aftermarket trading and Just Eat Takeaway shares closed more than 13% lower in Amsterdam after the companies disclosed they were in talks in the late afternoon.

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