European food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com is selling Chicago-based Grubhub for $650 million, a fraction of the billions it spent to buy the U.S. platform three years ago.
Wonder Group, a New York-based food ordering company that promotes “fast fine” dining, will become the new owner of Grubhub. Under the terms of the deal, which was announced Wednesday, Wonder will acquire Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway.com for $150 million in cash and $500 million in senior notes.
That’s much less than the price tag of Grubhub’s last sale. In 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and a surge in demand for takeout food, Just Eat agreed to buy Grubhub for $7.3 billion — reportedly beating Uber in a merger — in a transaction that was completed later in 2021.
Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway.com acknowledged Wednesday that it has been “actively exploring” the partial or full sale of Grubhub for some time, citing previous announcements from the company. Just Eat Takeaway.com added that the sale of Grubhub to Wonder would increase growth and cash generation and support investments in countries where it “has the greatest competitive advantage”. Outside of the US, the company currently operates in 18 other countries.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. Once completed, Just Eat Takeaway.com says it will retain no material obligations with respect to Grubhub.
“This deal provides Grubhub and its employees with the right home,” Jitse Groen, CEO of Just Eat Takeaway.com, said in a statement. The company’s shares rose more than 15% on Wednesday afternoon.
Wonder and Grubhub CEOs Marc Lore and Howard Migdal also issued positive comments Wednesday, with both noting that the deal would support Wonder’s mission to “make great food more accessible” and improve customer experiences.
Founded by Lore, Wonder bills itself as a “new kind of dining room” and delivers made-to-order meals from big-name chefs and restaurants. The New York startup was once known for its fleet of vans, but later switched to a more physical approach. The online offering has also grown. Last year, Wonder bought meal kit company Blue Apron for $103 million.
Headquartered in Chicago, Grubhub operates in more than 4,000 U.S. cities – with more than 375,000 merchants and 200,000 delivery partners nationwide to date. According to Just Eat, the platform generated 237 million orders last year with a gross transaction value of 8.06 million euros (about $8.53 million).
Takeaway.com, which merged with Just Eat in 2020, and Grubhub were both founded in the early 2000s, making them among the first companies in the sector. But competition quickly increased as now-popular platforms like Uber Eats and DoorDash also joined the game. And customers switching between apps can make it difficult to keep sales steady.
As of March 2024, figures from data analytics firm Bloomberg Second Measure showed that Grubhub represented just 8% of consumer spending on food delivery in the US – far less than DoorDash or Uber Eats. DoorDash is currently winning the “food delivery war,” per Second Measure, accounting for 67% of these sales, followed by Uber Eats’ 23%.
