Just Eat Takeaway.com announced Wednesday that it will sell Grubhub to Wonder for $650 million, which is about $6.52 billion less than what it bought the company for in 2020. That’s a 90 percent loss.
Wonder will get Grubhub for $150 million in cash and the assumption of $500 million in debt.
The company said the transaction allows it to support investment in countries where it has the best competitive advantage. It also should improve Just Eat’s gross transaction value, free cash flow, capital structure, and liquidity position. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2025.
“The sale of Grubhub to Wonder will increase the cash generation capabilities of Just Eat Takeaway.com and will accelerate our growth. This deal delivers the right home for Grubhub and its employees,”
Jitse Groen, founder and CEO of Just Eat Takeaway.com, said in a statement. “I would like to thank everyone at Grubhub for their contributions to both Grubhub and the wider Just Eat Takeaway.com business.
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The transaction comes about four and a half years after Just Eat acquired Grubhub for $7.3 billion. Beforehand, Grubhub and Uber participated in merger talks, but the deal fell through. A month later, Uber shifted gears and announced its intention to purchase Postmates for $2.65 billion.
In October 2021, investor Cat Rock Capital Management urged the delivery firm to sell or spinoff Grubhub to refocus on the core business and address “deep and damaging undervaluation of the Company’s equity.” In response, Just Eat acknowledged Grubhub has challenges, but described the third-party aggregator as a “large and growing business with good underlying profitability.”
By April 2022, Just Eat indicated it was considering selling Grubhub. However, there were reports the company was struggling to find buyers. At the time, sources told the U.K.’s Sunday Times that Grubhub could sell for as little as $1.26 billion and that an acquisition may never happen.
Just Eat told investors in June 2023 that it was having issues selling Grubhub because of delivery fee caps and a pending lawsuit in New York City. CEO Jitse Groen said the company talked with interested parties, but they were “complicated conversations.” He added that fee caps were preventing Just Eat from fetching a “decent multiple on Grubhub because the swing factor is so dramatic.” Potential buyers were not sure about the company’s true value.
In North America, where Grubhub is based, Just Eat completed 66.8 million orders in Q3, down 11 percent year-over-year. Year to date, orders were down 9 percent. Grubhub currently has more than 375,000 merchants and 200,000 delivery partners across the U.S.
Founded by Marc Lore, Wonder is a food hall that offers multi-restaurant ordering, meaning guests can order from upward of 30 restaurant concepts in one order. Each item is made to order in a sequenced fashion so they finish simultaneously and can be delivered to guests at one time. The company uses proprietary technology to offer order-to-delivery times below 30 minutes.
Wonder has 28 locations in the Northeast. Seven more locations will open by the end of the year. In conjunction with the transaction, the food hall concept also announced $250 million in capital exclusively from new investors.
The company partners with the likes of Bobby Flay, José Andrés, Nancy Silverton, and Marcus Samuelsson, and restaurants such as Tejas Barbeque and Di Fara Pizza.
“Wonder’s acquisition of Grubhub continues our mission to make great food more accessible,” Lore said in a statement. “As we enhance our customer experience with selection, speed, and variety, we’re excited to soon offer a curated selection of Grubhub’s restaurant partners directly in the Wonder app, alongside our owned and operated restaurants and meal kits. Bringing Wonder and Grubhub together is the next step in our vision to create the super app for meal time, re-envisioning the future of food delivery.
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Wonder also acquired Blue Apron for $103 million in November 2023.
