As part of its plan to become a dominant player in food delivery, Uber reportedly offered to buy Grubhub in a deal that could value the company at $6.9 billion. If successful, the deal would give Uber Eats 55% of the delivery market with the addition of 24 million active users.
However, it seems Uber could lose the deal to two at least two European companies. Netherlands-based Just Eat Takeaway.com and German company Delivery Hero have also expressed interest in merging with Grubhub, according to a report from CNBC, citing people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
Just Eat Takeaway.com is reportedly working with Bank of America as an adviser, the people said. Spokespersons at Just East Takeaway and Bank of America declined to comment. According to CNBC, a Delivery Hero spokesman declined to comment on specifics but added, “As the world’s leading local delivery platform, we are committed to invest in sustainable growth and gain leadership positions in the markets we operate in. Being a global leader in the delivery industry, we are regularly looking at potential transactions to evaluate new opportunities.”
Grubhub has come under intense scrutiny in recent months for using thousands of fake websites to upcharge commission fees from real businesses. Critics accused Grubhub of creating as many as 23,000 websites that resemble a landing page for the official business and also listing phone numbers that don’t belong to the actual business.
The Chicago-based Grubhub was founded in 2004. The company had 19.9 million active users and 115,000 associated restaurants[2] across 3,200 cities and all 50 states in the United States. On the other hand, Takeaway.com provides restaurant delivery services in 23 European cities in five countries for restaurants that do not deliver themselves. Takeaway.com has rapidly grown to become the leading online food delivery marketplace of Continental Europe with operations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, and Portugal.
