Analysis
Uber agreed to acquire the bulk of Delivery Hero's international operations for $14.8 billion in cash, a deal that would nearly double Uber's global delivery footprint across 50 markets that generated $42 billion in gross bookings last year, according to Bloomberg and TechCrunch reporting published July 16. The offer values Delivery Hero shares at EUR41.50 apiece and brings Uber brands including Baedal Minjok in South Korea, Glovo across multiple countries, HungerStation in Saudi Arabia, talabat across the Middle East and PedidosYa across Latin America.
The transaction is structured in two parts: alongside Uber's offer, private-equity firm SSW Partners agreed to separately acquire Delivery Hero's operations in 14 other markets -- including foodora in Austria, Norway and Sweden, and Yemeksepeti in Turkey -- for roughly $1.6 billion, effectively splitting Delivery Hero's global footprint between a strategic buyer and a financial one in a single coordinated process.
The deal continues a consolidation wave across food delivery that's already reshaped the category through DoorDash's international acquisitions and Just Eat Takeaway's earlier struggles; Uber's move puts it in more direct global competition with DoorDash outside the US while removing one of the last large independent delivery platforms in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Prosus, Delivery Hero's second-largest shareholder at approximately 17%, has already agreed to tender its stake in support of the offer, giving Uber a running start toward the shareholder approval threshold before the deal has even formally closed -- a level of pre-committed support that reduces execution risk relative to a fully contested takeover.
For investors, the deal is projected to be accretive to Uber's non-GAAP earnings per share upon closing, with high-single-digit percentage accretion by the third year, a signal Uber's board views international delivery scale as a genuine earnings driver rather than a defensive land grab. The bear case: a close expected only in the second half of 2027 leaves 18 months of regulatory review across dozens of jurisdictions, and merger-control clearances at this geographic scope carry real risk of delay or forced divestitures in specific markets.
What to watch next: how regulators in the EU, South Korea and the Middle East respond to a deal that consolidates delivery share so broadly, and whether DoorDash or another competitor responds with its own international acquisition to avoid ceding scale to Uber.
