DoorDash to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion, Uniting 2 Delivery Giants

DoorDash said on Thursday that it had agreed to buy Instacart for $17 billion, in a deal that would fold the nation’s dominant grocery delivery app into the company that already controls most of America’s restaurant takeout orders.Together, the companies would command a large share of the business of bringing dinner and groceries to Americans’ doors.Under the terms of the agreement, Instacart shareholders will receive $65 per share, 26 percent over the company’s price on Oct.

22, before media reports of the deal surfaced.The deal has been approved by both companies’ boards.Shares of Instacart rose nearly 5 percent in premarket trading, while DoorDash shares rose more than 7 percent.Combining the companies’ technology and infrastructure will make it “the best in class product for all retailers to be able to compete against the world’s biggest companies,” Tony Xu, chief executive of DoorDash, said on a call with investors.

It will result in faster deliveries and “enable more affordable prices, which, in turn, will generate more sales for every grocer or retailer and more earnings opportunity for every shopper.”In the third quarter, DoorDash said it completed 993 million orders, up 28 percent from a year earlier, as customers spent nearly $34 billion.The company brought in $4.6 billion in revenue.

Instacart’s latest results, for the second quarter, showed that it handled 90.3 million orders worth about $10.4 billion, generating revenue of just over $1 billion.Both companies have headquarters in San Francisco.The takeover is DoorDash’s largest to date, surpassing its roughly $8 billion buyout of the Finnish food-delivery company Wolt and its acquisition of Deliveroo, a British rival.

It was also a striking turn for Instacart, which was valued at $39 billion by private investors during the pandemic grocery boom and went public in 2023.With a market capitalization of around $14 billion, Instacart has since come under mounting pressure from l...