Alleged Uber interest causes Grubhub share to rise sharply

29 percent price increase within a few hours: Media reports about a purchase offer have pushed the food delivery service Grubhub up. The prospect should be Uber.

San Francisco (dpa) - The share of the food delivery service Grubhub has risen after reports of a takeover interest from Uber. The price soared in the US trade by a good 29 percent until close of trading.

The Wall Street Journal and the Bloomberg news agency had previously reported that the operator brokered an offer for excavation. Uber is already active in the food delivery business - but still needs size to be profitable in it.

Grubhub was last worth around $ 4.5 billion on the stock exchange - and Uber around $ 55 billion. The Wall Street Journal, citing informed people, reported that Grubhub recently suggested that its shareholders get 2.15 Uber shares per share. At the prices before the media reports, this would amount to a price of $ 68 per Grubhub share. That would be a good $ 20 above Monday's closing price - and also explains the rapid rise in prices. The Grubhub stock closed on Tuesday at $ 60.39. However, it is still far from the highs of more than $ 140 in August 2018.

The business of food suppliers got a significant boost in the Corona crisis, partly because restaurants switched to out-of-house operation. Uber Eats sales in the first quarter increased more than 50 percent year-over-year to $ 819 million. However, the operating loss remained stable at $ 313 million. Grubhub recorded a twelve percent increase in sales to $ 363 million with a loss of $ 33.4 million.

According to the "Financial Times", Uber had already tried to take over the mining hub rival DoorDash last year, but flashed off. Even after Grubhub swallowed several competitors like Eat24 or Foodler, the company is still smaller than DoorDash in the US market.

If the deal between Uber and Grubhub comes about, he could call on competition officials. Because the two services would come together, according to the financial firm Wedbush Securities, for a market share of 55 percent, reported the "New York Times". The only major rival would then be DoorDash with around 35 percent. In the US House of Representatives, competition committee chairman David Cicilline already criticized Uber as a "pandemic winner" and called for a break for most acquisitions.

The Corona pandemic is a problem for Uber because the number of passengers in its core business with vehicle services has fallen. Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi is now cleaning up: The loss-making business with the rental of e-scooters and electric bicycles was handed over to the industry pioneer Lime, and Uber Eats was discontinued in seven countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania and Egypt. The well-connected technology website "The Information" reported that Uber was considering cutting a fifth of its 4,000 software developer jobs. Competitor Lyft has already cut 1,000 jobs - around 17 percent of the workforce.