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Delivery Hero confirmed on Saturday that Uber had made a formal indicative proposal to acquire the company at €33 per share, valuing the German food delivery group at over €10 billion, after the Financial Times reported that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi flew to Oslo this week to meet Delivery Hero supervisory board chair Kristin Skogen Lund and was rebuffed.
Several shareholders told the FT they would seek a price above €40, a 19% premium to Friday’s close that would value Delivery Hero at approximately €13 billion.
Rival DoorDash is also circling, primarily interested in Delivery Hero’s Middle East business, which includes Talabat and HungerStation, and is also seeking the Turkish arm Yemeksepeti, though it has not ruled out a bid for the whole company, the FT reported.
DoorDash CEO Tony Xu has made direct contact with Lund, according to the FT, and both companies have been speaking to shareholders about acquiring stakes in recent days. DoorDash approached shareholders and was told that Delivery Hero’s 80% stake in Talabat alone is worth up to €9 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Delivery Hero’s board is now considering a full sale or a series of deals that would spin off the Middle East and Korea divisions separately, the FT reported. Uber separately made enquiries about the South Korean arm in a joint bid with Korean internet group Naver that would have valued the unit at approximately €4.6 billion.
The combined value of the individual business units exceeds the price floor sought by shareholders for the whole company, suggesting a breakup could yield more than a single takeover.
Uber’s stake has grown rapidly since the 4.5% it purchased from Prosus for €270 million in April, which FWDstart reported at the time and which Uber described as “opportunistic.” It now owns 19.5% plus a further 5.6% in options, built with Morgan Stanley’s help using derivatives, giving it blocking influence over capital increases, acquisitions and changes to Delivery Hero’s constitutional documents.
CEO Niklas Östberg announced last week he will leave by March 2027 after years of pressure from activist Aspex Management, which holds 14.6%.
Delivery Hero still owns approximately 80% of Talabat after selling 20% in a $2 billion IPO on the Dubai Financial Market in December 2024, and the stock has fallen more than 56% from its listing price.
HungerStation, the Saudi market leader, was fully acquired by Delivery Hero in 2023 for $297 million.
Whether Uber, DoorDash or a breakup scenario prevails, the ownership of the region’s two largest food delivery platforms is now actively in play.
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