Uber just spent $14.8 billion to become food delivery’s biggest rival outside China

Food delivery just got a new heavyweight. Uber announced on Thursday that it has agreed to buy Germany’s Delivery Hero for $14.8 billion in equity, a deal that instantly makes the combined company the largest food-delivery group outside China.

The move is aimed squarely at rivals Just Eat, owned by Dutch group Prosus, and DoorDash in the US, both of which Uber has been racing to match on scale and market reach.

Delivery Hero currently runs food-delivery operations across a wide spread of countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, markets where Uber’s own delivery arm has had a smaller presence until now.

‘Together, we’ll nearly double the number of markets where we offer both mobility and delivery services,’ Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said of the acquisition.

The deal still needs at least 50% plus one share of Delivery Hero’s shareholders to accept the offer, and if that condition is met, Uber expects the transaction to close in the second half of next year.

Wikimedia Commons/by conceptphoto.info