The battle to gobble up GrubHub is over, with European food delivery service Just Eat Takeaway emerging as the winning bidder. The two way battle for acquiring Grubhub between Uber and Just Eat has resulted in a win for the latter, at a cost of $7.3Bn. The all-stock deal, when approved, would create the largest food delivery company outside of China.
In a joint statement, the companies said that the deal would create “a company built around four of the world’s largest profit pools in food delivery: the U.S., the UK, the Netherlands and Germany,” Just Eat said, that the combined operations of the two — which processed 593 million orders in 2019 — will have over 70 million combined active customers globally.
Under the terms of the Transaction, Grubhub shareholders will be entitled to receive American depositary receipts (“ADRs”) representing 0.6710 Just Eat Takeaway.com ordinary shares in exchange for each Grubhub share, representing an implied value of $75.15 for each Grubhub share (based on the undisturbed closing price of Just Eat Takeaway.com on 9 June 2020 of €98.602) and implying a total equity consideration (on a fully diluted basis) of $7.3 billion.
Immediately post completion of the deal, Grubhub shareholders are expected to own ADRs representing approximately 30.0% of the Combined Group (on a fully diluted basis).
In terms of board movements, Matt Maloney, CEO and founder of Grubhub, will join the Just Eat Takeaway.com Management Board and will lead the Combined Group’s businesses across North America and two current Grubhub Directors will join the Just Eat Takeaway.com Supervisory Board.
The deal comes just months after Just Eat acquired Takeaway, for a mammoth $7.8 billion, in one of the largest food delivery deals globally. That Takeaway deal just got approved in April this year.
The deal would help Just Eat expand in the US in a highly accelerated manner. In a statement, the companies said. “The Transaction represents Just Eat Takeaway.com’s entry into online food delivery in the United States (“U.S.”) and builds on the strategic rationale for its recent merger with Just Eat plc (“Just Eat”). ”
For Grubhub, the deal would help it shrug off those antitrust allegations back in the US. Until very recently, Uber was considered as the front runner in acquiring Grubhub. The talks however fell of a cliff, when Uber said that despite the industry needing some consolidation, “that doesn’t mean we are interested in doing any deal, at any price, with any player.”
