And Then A Hero Comes Along

German Takeaway

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What's going on?

On Friday, pan-European food delivery platform Takeaway.com announced a deal to buy global rival Delivery Heros German business for $1 billion.

What does this mean?

Both companies do the same thing: offer websites and apps that help get food from (typically takeout) restaurants into the homes and bellies of hungry customers, while taking a cut of the restaurants cheque. Takeaway.com started in the Netherlands but soon expanded into Delivery Heros home turf of Germany and the ensuing battle for supremacy has raged for years.


But the comestible combatants called a partial pax on Friday, as Takeaway.com agreed to buy Delivery Heros German business with a combination of cash and its own stock. The deal gives Delivery Hero a roughly 18% stake in its former foe.

Why should I care?

For markets: If you cant beat em, join em.

German customers were able to get much the same food on multiple platforms. For them, using more than one was unnecessary and that created fierce competition between the two companies. In the first half of 2018, mega marketing spend was partly to blame for Takeaway.coms $24 million loss in Germany and Delivery Heros $32 million loss across Europe. Halting the German campaign and its associated costs should save both companies money, partly explaining the rise in their stocks on Friday: Takeaway.com’s by 35% and Delivery Hero’s by 10%.



The bigger picture: Food for thought for Uber.

The combined business will likely be a more formidable match for Ubers own food delivery platform in Germany. Uber Eats contributes an estimated 10% to 15% of the companys roughly $11 billion 2018 revenue (tweet this). Having more than one string to its bow is key for Uber as it accelerates toward an initial public offering and tries to pull ahead of its nemesis Lyft, which has its sights set on a 2019 listing of its own.

Originally posted as part of the Finimize daily email.

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