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With activist investor Aspex Management's 14.6% now sitting in Uber's hands at just under €40 a share, the question that animated this week's deep dive, namely whether Uber or DoorDash ends up with Delivery Hero, has more or less answered itself.
Uber's economic interest in the German parent is now close to 37%, its voting rights sit at 24.99% (a hair below the threshold that would trigger a mandatory offer under German law), and the most vocal advocate for breaking the company up and selling the pieces has been bought out and removed from the board's ear in one move.
DoorDash, which only ever really wanted the MENA arm and the Turkish business Yemeksepeti, now finds itself staring at a blocking minority it most likely won’t be able to get around without Uber's say-so.
The more interesting question, then, is not who ends up owning Delivery Hero, but what owning it actually gets you.
The answer, at least regionally, is two assets, HungerStation in Saudi Arabia and Talabat across the Gulf, and the fact that neither is really a food delivery business anymore.
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