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AMSTERDAM/NEW YORK (Reuters) – European food ordering firm Just Eat Takeaway.com NV (AS:TKWY) said on Wednesday it was in advanced talks to buy Grubhub Inc (N:GRUB) in an all-stock deal that, if completed, would create the world’s largest food delivery company by revenue.
Grubhub, which has a market cap of about $4.3 billion, was also approached by Uber Eats, a unit of ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc (N:UBER), in May for an all-stock deal.
Uber, however, is now close to exiting the deal, CNBC reported on Wednesday.
Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A potential Uber-Grubhub merger had raised antitrust concerns, especially in major markets including New York City, where Grubhub already controls a large share of restaurant deliveries.
Chris Sagers, who teaches at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, had predicted that Uber’s acquisition of Grubhub would be stopped by U.S. antitrust enforcers.
But a deal between Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway could win easy approval. “A deal with zero U.S. market share, they won’t even get a second” request indicating an extended review, he said.
A Just Eat Takeaway merger with Grubhub would create a company with combined total revenues of more than 2.1 billion euros.
That would eclipse the largest global food delivery company, China’s Meituan, which had 1.4 billion euro business, according to a Just Eat presentation before it acquired Takeaway in 2019.
Experts say consolidation is long overdue in the U.S. food-delivery space, where demand is surging, especially as many people stay-at-home to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.
