Grubhub has reached an agreement to merge with the online takeaway food delivery service Just Eat Takeaway.com as Grubhub’s talks with Uber fell through over concerns about antitrust approval.
The deal, announcedby Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway, gives Grubhub an implied value of $75.15 per share, or a total equity value of $7.3 billion per share.
Just Eat Takeaway said the combined operation will have more than 70 million customers globally.
Under the terms of the deal, Grubhub chief executive officer Matt Maloney will join Just Eat’s management board and lead the combined business in North America. The CEO of Just Eat Takeaway, Jitse Groen, will be the head of the combined business globally.
The companies said they expect the deal to close in the first quarter of next year.
Uber and Grubhub had been, reportedly, in merger talks for more than a year and had agreed on a price ratio, however last month a group of Democratic senators wrote to antitrust officials urging an investigation of the deal if it went forward.
“Like ridesharing, the food delivery industry will need consolidation in order to reach its full potential for consumers and restaurants,” a spokesperson for Uber said in a statement. “That doesn’t mean we are interested in doing any deal, at any price, with any player.”
Just Eat, based in the U.K., and Takeaway, based in the Netherlands, announced their plans to merge in August 2019. That deal was approved by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority in April.
Grubhub’s merger with a company based outside the U.S. is expected to raise less antitrust risk.
The combined company will be headquartered in Amsterdam and have its North American headquarters in Chicago. It will also have a significant presence in the U.K.
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