Unsplash/Andrea Davis
The following is one story you’ll find in today’s edition of The Water Coolest’s free daily email newsletter. The Water Coolest is a daily business news and professional advice email newsletter geared towards bros (read: expect a hearty helping of unfiltered commentary and advice on how to suck less at work).
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“Congratulations, you played yourself.” – Antitrust regulators to Uber, probably.
Just Eat Takeaway is acquiring Grubhub for $7.3B in an all-stock deal, despite Grubhub being courted by Uber for the last few months. Just Eat is paying $75.15 per share for the US meal delivery giant, a 27% premium from its closing price on Wednesday. Those delivery fees will get you.
Just Eat shares fell 13% on the news.
Wait, I thought Uber was buying GrubHub?
Uber had been in talks to merge Grubhub hoping to add it to its UberEats offering. The move would have created the largest US delivery service with more than 55% of the market share. What’s the worst that could happen?
That’s exactly what antitrust regulators were wondering/ And is what Uber is pointing to as the reason for the deal falling apart. According to the scorned lover, it was offering more money and has a higher stock ceiling than Just Eat. Uber takes rejection about as well as an Ivy League summer analyst at a hotel bar in Soho. Uber shares fell 4.4% on the day.
But Just Eat is no stranger to keeping the no-fun police happy. Over in Europe, Just Eat acquired Netherlands-based Takeaway back in April. That deal was approved by UK regulators on the grounds that Takeaway wouldn’t have been able to enter the UK without the merger. So it’s a little different, but some playoff experience is better than none.
The bottom line…
Uber, in addition to bragging about how big it’s stock price can get (grower, not a shower) said it was planning to stop Grubhub from the less than desirable practices of phone charging and site squatting. Everyone likes a fully charged phone, what’s the issue?
Grubhub has been accused of generating and advertising phone numbers for its restaurants online that, it charges a fee for when orders come through. Those fees can sometimes outweigh the price of the order itself. Not good for your bottom line. GH has also been accused of buying up domain names near the names of restaurants on its platforms, and holding them hostage, again for a fee. I told you the fees will get you.
In the meantime, Grubhub will have to adapt as coronavirus lockdowns begin to ease, which drove a sh*t load of business for the delivery service du jour of the “sit at home and smoke weed” community.
Water Cooler Talking Point(s)
💧 “If Uber really wants to step up its game, just throw someone in the passenger seat that can make a mean grilled cheese in the time it takes you to get from one bar to another. ” (AJ, The Water Coolest HQ)
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