That’s according to a report Monday (May 25) from the Financial Times (FT), citing sources familiar with the matter.
The report said the meeting came after a major shareholder at Germany-based Delivery Hero turned down a bid that would have valued the company at more than €11.5 billion ($13.3 billion).
Sources added that Uber had approached one of Delivery Hero’s largest shareholders with a €38 per share offer in recent days but was turned away. Now, the U.S. tech giant is considering increasing its bid once more, the report added.
Uber, itself a major shareholder in Delivery Hero, had made an earlier offer of €33 a share that would have valued the company at more than €10bn, Delivery Hero confirmed on Saturday. This followed an earlier FT report that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had flown to Oslo last week to make an offer to the chair of Delivery Hero’s supervisory board.
“Uber Technologies reached out with an indicative proposal of €33 per share in respect of a potential takeover offer to all shareholders,” Delivery Hero said in its weekend statement. “The company remains fully focused on executing its strategic review process. Further updates will be provided as required or appropriate.”
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According to FT, sources say that Uber rival DoorDash has also been considering an acquisition of Delivery Hero.
As FT noted, such a deal would be the latest example of consolidation in the food delivery space. Just Eat Takeaway, which at one time owned Grubhub, was acquired last winter by tech investor Prosus for $4.3 billion. And DoorDash last year acquired Deliveroo, a U.K.-based company providing delivery throughout parts of Europe and the Middle East, as well as Singapore.
As covered here earlier this year, DoorDash management has since said that this deal is helping it shift from a company “best known for restaurant orders” to “a technology and infrastructure partner to merchants.”
More recently, PYMNTS examined the diverging paths taken by Uber and rival Lyft as it increasingly focuses on mobility and logistics infrastructure.
“Uber no longer wants to own a single transportation moment; it wants to orchestrate the entire journey around it,” PYMNTS wrote.
“That includes airport rides, hotel reservations, restaurant delivery, retail shopping and eventually autonomous fleets. The company says three-quarters of Uber rides already involve AI predicting where a customer wants to go before the destination is entered.”
