The $15 Billion Food Fight: Uber and DoorDash Circle Delivery Hero in Rival Takeover Bids

Uber Technologies and DoorDash have each held preliminary talks with investors in Delivery Hero SE about a potential buyout of the Berlin-based food delivery conglomerate, according to a Financial Times report published on May 23, 2026 [1]. The U.S. companies are approaching shareholders separately, not jointly, with some discussions suggesting a price above €40 ($46) per share — a 19% premium to Delivery Hero's recent closing price that would value the company at approximately €13 billion ($15 billion) [1].

The simultaneous courtship marks the latest — and perhaps most consequential — chapter in the global food delivery industry's consolidation wave. Delivery Hero, which operates in over 70 countries through brands including Talabat, Foodpanda, and PedidosYa, has become the single largest prize remaining on the board [2].

From €50 Billion to €13 Billion: A Valuation Collapse and Partial Recovery

Delivery Hero's current market capitalization of roughly $10 billion stands at a fraction of its 2021 peak of approximately €50 billion [3]. The company's shares traded near €145 in early 2021, fell to roughly €22 by mid-2025, and have since recovered to around €40 — driven partly by Uber's aggressive stake-building and the activist campaign at the company [4].

Source: Stock Analysis

Data as of May 23, 2026CSV

The proposed €40-per-share price, while a premium to recent trading levels, remains roughly 72% below the stock's all-time high. This gap frames the central tension for shareholders: whether to take a premium now or hold for further recovery.

Delivery Hero's enterprise value is considerably higher than its equity market cap. The company carried significant debt, though it has been paying down obligations aggressively. Net debt fell from €3.8 billion to approximately €1.8 billion through 2025, aided by proceeds from the Talabat IPO and the sale of Foodpanda Taiwan to Grab for $600 million [5][6]. At roughly 2.2x net debt-to-EBITDA, leverage has come down but still adds billions to any acquirer's total price tag.

The Crown Jewels: Talabat, Foodpanda, and Regional Assets

Not all of Delivery Hero's 70-country portfolio is equally valuable. Analysts and acquirers have focused on three segments:

Talabat (Middle East and North Africa): The most valuable asset. Delivery Hero floated 20% of Talabat on the Dubai Financial Market in December 2024, raising $2 billion at a valuation of approximately $10.2 billion [7]. Delivery Hero retains an 80% stake. Talabat operates across the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Oman, Jordan, and Iraq, and is one of the few consistently profitable platforms in Delivery Hero's portfolio [8].

Foodpanda (Asia): Following the sale of Foodpanda Taiwan to Grab for $600 million in March 2026, the remaining Foodpanda operations span several Asian markets [6]. Uber had previously attempted to acquire Foodpanda's Taiwan business but was blocked by the island's antitrust regulator in March 2025 [6].

PedidosYa (Latin America): The brand operates primarily in Uruguay and Argentina, offering Delivery Hero exposure to Latin American markets where DoorDash has limited presence.

Delivery Hero's board is considering either a total sale or a series of deals that would spin off the Middle Eastern and South Korean divisions separately [1]. This piecemeal approach could allow different buyers to take different regions, but it also risks leaving a rump company with the least profitable operations.

The Buyers: Balance Sheets and Strategic Logic

Uber has moved fastest. It acquired a 7% stake in Delivery Hero in April 2026 by purchasing €270 million worth of shares from Prosus NV, then increased its holding to 19.5% — plus a further 5.6% in options — by mid-May, making it Delivery Hero's largest shareholder [9][10]. Uber initially said it had "no intent to acquire 30% or more" of Delivery Hero's voting rights, which would trigger a mandatory offer under German takeover law [10]. Days later, Bloomberg reported Uber was evaluating a full acquisition [11].

Uber's balance sheet can support a large deal. As of March 31, 2026, Uber held $5.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39 — indicating $0.39 of long-term debt for every dollar of shareholders' equity [12]. The company had $10.5 billion in long-term debt as of fiscal 2025, but its cash flow generation has strengthened considerably.

DoorDash brings comparable financial firepower. As of Q1 2026, DoorDash reported $4.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents plus $958 million in short-term investments, for total liquidity of roughly $5.5 billion [13]. Total debt stood at $2.7 billion, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 27.1%. DoorDash's short-term assets of $8.6 billion exceeded short-term liabilities of $6.1 billion [13].

Both companies have histories of large acquisitions. Uber bought Postmates for $2.65 billion in 2020. DoorDash acquired Helsinki-based Wolt for $8.1 billion in 2021, giving it a European beachhead [14]. A full Delivery Hero acquisition at €13 billion would be the largest food delivery deal ever attempted.

A Shareholder Register in Flux

The timing of the approach is not accidental. Delivery Hero's shareholder base has been reshuffled in recent months, creating openings for deal-making.

Source: Bloomberg / Company Filings

Data as of May 23, 2026CSV

Uber holds 19.5% and is the largest shareholder [10]. Prosus NV, which previously held the top position, has been reducing its stake — selling 4.5% to Uber in April and another 5% to Hong Kong-based activist fund Aspex Management in May for €335 million [15][16]. Prosus's remaining holding is approximately 17%, and the sell-down was partly driven by European Commission conditions attached to Prosus's €4.1 billion acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com [15][17].

Aspex Management now holds roughly 15%, making it the second-largest shareholder [16]. Aspex has been the most vocal force pushing for change. The fund built its position rapidly and pressured co-founder and CEO Niklas Östberg to step down, which was announced on May 12, 2026 [18]. Östberg, who co-founded Delivery Hero in 2011, will depart by March 31, 2027 at the latest [18]. The supervisory board is searching for a successor.

David Tepper's Appaloosa Management also made a sizeable first-quarter share purchase, adding another activist voice to the register [4].

Institutional investors collectively hold about 47% of shares, with index and active managers including Baillie Gifford, Vanguard, and BlackRock each holding single-digit stakes [4].

The Profitability Question

Delivery Hero's financial trajectory has improved markedly, complicating the narrative that the company cannot succeed independently.

For full-year 2025, the company reported adjusted EBITDA of €903 million, up 30% year-over-year [5]. In the first half of 2025 alone, adjusted EBITDA surged 71% to €411 million, with margins expanding by 70 basis points to 1.7% of gross merchandise value (GMV — the total value of goods sold through the platform) [19]. The company achieved its first-ever positive group operating result in 2025 [5].

Free cash flow swung from negative €240 million in the first half of 2023 to more than positive €200 million for full-year 2025, beating the company's own guidance of positive €120 million [5]. Cash on hand stood at €2.9 billion following a €900 million buyback of convertible bonds in Q1 2025 [5].

These figures raise a pointed question: if Delivery Hero is finally bending its cost curve toward profitability, why sell now?

The answer may lie in the gap between adjusted EBITDA and actual bottom-line profitability. Delivery Hero has been loss-making for years on a net income basis despite growing scale. Only three platforms in the portfolio — Baemin in South Korea, HungerStation in Saudi Arabia, and Talabat — are described as meaningfully profitable [8]. The rest of the 70-country footprint includes markets where Delivery Hero burns cash to maintain market share against entrenched local competitors.

An acquirer like Uber or DoorDash would argue that consolidation eliminates duplicated overhead — technology platforms, marketing spend, corporate staff — and that a combined entity can negotiate better terms with restaurants and merchants. Skeptics counter that these synergy projections have repeatedly failed to materialize at the promised scale in food delivery. Uber's acquisition of Postmates, for example, delivered cost savings but did not fundamentally alter the competitive dynamics in the U.S. market.

The Antitrust Minefield

Any deal faces serious regulatory hurdles. The European Commission fined Delivery Hero and its subsidiary Glovo a combined €329 million in June 2025 for participating in an antitrust cartel in the food delivery sector [17]. Brussels has shown increasing willingness to intervene in digital platform mergers.

Specific markets where antitrust scrutiny would be most intense:

Taiwan: Uber already failed to acquire Foodpanda's Taiwan operations when the deal was blocked by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission in March 2025 over competition concerns [6]. The business was subsequently sold to Grab instead.

Europe: Delivery Hero operates across multiple European markets through Glovo, which it acquired in 2022. Uber Eats also operates in many of the same countries. A combined Uber-Delivery Hero entity would face overlap scrutiny in markets like Spain, Italy, Poland, and Romania. The EC's recent clearance of the Prosus-Just Eat deal — but only with conditions including waiving voting rights and board representation for a "specified considerable time" [17] — signals the bar for approval is high.

South Korea: Baemin (operated by Delivery Hero subsidiary Woowa Brothers) is the dominant delivery platform. Any buyer attempting to enter or expand in Korea through this acquisition would face scrutiny from the Korea Fair Trade Commission, which has historically been aggressive about food delivery market concentration.

Middle East: Talabat's dominance across Gulf states means divestitures could be required if the acquirer already operates there. Uber Eats has a presence in several MENA markets.

DoorDash faces potentially fewer overlap issues, given its operations are concentrated in North America, with international presence primarily through Wolt in Europe. This could give DoorDash a regulatory advantage over Uber in a bidding contest.

The Workforce and Labor Dimension

Delivery Hero employs an estimated 10,000 to 48,000 people directly, depending on how corporate and operational staff are counted, across its global operations [20]. Beyond its direct employees, the company relies on tens of thousands of gig workers — couriers using motorcycles, bicycles, and cars dispatched via smartphone apps [20].

Platform consolidation following an acquisition could lead to workforce reductions in overlapping markets. When Uber completed major acquisitions in the past, redundant corporate roles were typically eliminated. For gig workers, the effect is different: if a buyer shuts down operations in unprofitable markets — a plausible outcome for some of Delivery Hero's less-established territories — couriers lose access to the platform entirely.

Delivery Hero has faced ongoing legal battles in multiple countries over the classification of gig workers, and has exited several markets partly due to labor disputes [20]. Any acquirer would inherit these liabilities. European Union member states have been tightening rules around gig worker protections, and a change of corporate ownership could accelerate regulatory attention.

The Case for Skepticism

The steelman case against this deal rests on a straightforward observation: Delivery Hero, despite operating at massive scale across 70 countries, could not achieve sustained profitability under its own management with lower overhead than a post-acquisition entity would carry.

An acquirer would need to finance the purchase — whether through cash, debt, equity, or some combination — and then fund integration costs while simultaneously trying to extract synergies from a sprawling, multi-brand, multi-country operation. Acquisition debt would add to the already significant leverage in the combined entity.

The history of food delivery M&A offers mixed precedent. DoorDash's $8.1 billion Wolt acquisition gave it European scale but has not yet produced the margin expansion originally projected [14]. The Just Eat-Grubhub merger created value destruction on a historic scale, with Grubhub's value declining from $7.3 billion at acquisition to approximately $1.8 billion when it was eventually sold [17]. Uber's Postmates deal was operationally smoother but smaller in scope and complexity than a Delivery Hero transaction would be.

JPMorgan analysts viewed Uber's stake increase as "a clear endorsement of the strategic attractiveness of Delivery Hero's asset base" [11]. But strategic attractiveness and financial returns are not synonymous. The question for investors is whether a buyer can extract more value from these assets than a restructured, independent Delivery Hero — now with activist-driven governance changes and improving unit economics — could generate on its own.

What Comes Next

Several paths remain open. Delivery Hero could be acquired whole by either Uber or DoorDash. It could be broken up, with different buyers taking different regional operations — Uber might pursue the MENA and Asian assets while DoorDash targets Latin America and Europe. The company could also reject all approaches and continue its turnaround under new leadership.

The departure of Östberg by early 2027 creates a natural transaction window [18]. A new CEO brought in to run an independent company has different incentives than a board evaluating a premium offer. Aspex's 15% stake and activist posture suggest the fund is seeking a near-term liquidity event, not a multi-year operational turnaround.

For Uber, which already owns 19.5% and options on another 5.6%, the question is whether to push past the 30% mandatory offer threshold — and at what price [10]. For DoorDash, the question is whether it can outbid a rival that already has a substantial toehold and board-level influence.

Either way, the global food delivery market is headed toward a structure with two or three dominant Western platforms and a handful of regional players. Delivery Hero's fate will determine which companies occupy those dominant positions — and at what cost.