The American group, which seeks to compensate for the collapse of its passenger transport activity since the start of the pandemic, confirmed Monday that it bought Postmates for 2.65 billion dollars to complete its Uber Eats service.
Uber plans to continue operating the Postmates app separately.
AFP
Created nine years ago, Postmates struggled to resist its multiple rivals in a growing but highly contested niche. With the combination of the two platforms, consumers will benefit from a greater choice of restaurants and merchants while deliverers will have more opportunities, Uber said in a statement.
The passenger car giant (VTC) had, according to its latest results, shown a loss of 2.9 billion dollars (2.6 M EUR) in the first quarter, and dismissed about a quarter of its employees in May. But its Uber Eats home meal delivery service had taken advantage of social distancing and containment measures, with revenues up 53% to $ 819 million.
Even if the latter then represented only a still meager portion of the 3.5 billion in revenue accumulated in all, Uber is betting on its development.
Complementary activities
In order to strengthen itself in the niche, Uber had approached the American meal delivery platform Grubhub in May, but discussions had stalled over the price. It was the Anglo-Dutch meal delivery group Just Eat Takeaway who finally swallowed it, in a share transaction valued at $ 7.3 billion. Just Eat Takeaway, the result of a recent merger between the British Just Eat and the Dutch Takeaway, intends to prevail against the British Deliveroo and Uber Eats in this landscape in full consolidation.
Uber plans to continue operating the Postmates app separately. The activities of the two companies are complementary with different geographic areas and clienteles, says Uber, who also highlights the strong ties forged by Postmates with small and medium-sized restaurants, the latter having concluded agreements with 600,000 establishments in the United States. United.
The transaction is yet to receive the green light from authorities, including competition, but companies hope to finalize it in the first quarter of 2021.
(NXP/AFP)
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