Uber Makes Bid for Delivery Hero Below Market Close

Uber has formally proposed to acquire Delivery Hero at €33 per share, a bid that comes in slightly below the Berlin-based company’s Friday closing price. With Uber already holding nearly a quarter of the delivery giant and rival DoorDash also circling, this offer looks less like a final price and more like the starting point for a protracted negotiation.

Delivery Hero confirmed the proposal on Saturday, revealing that Uber’s indicative offer of €33 per share was extended to all shareholders. The Financial Times pegged the total implied valuation at roughly $11 billion (€10 billion). According to reports, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi personally flew to meet Delivery Hero’s supervisory board chair Kristin Skogen Lund before submitting the bid. Delivery Hero’s official response was measured: the company said it remains “fully focused” on its ongoing strategic review and declined to disclose further details.

That strategic review is the catalyst for the current timeline. Several of Delivery Hero’s largest shareholders have pushed for it over the past several months. Last week, co-founder and CEO Niklas Östberg announced he would step down once a successor is found, with a target date by the end of 2026 or no later than March 31, 2027. The board has already appointed advisors and opened the process; Uber’s bid is now the first number on the table.

It is far from the only one. Sources told the Financial Times that DoorDash has explored a full takeover of its own and separately expressed interest in Delivery Hero’s Middle Eastern unit, Talabat. Some Delivery Hero shareholders have argued for a price closer to €40 per share. The combination of a slight-discount offer, a large existing blockholder, a competing suitor, and an ongoing CEO succession creates the structural setup for a deal that will likely be renegotiated publicly over the coming weeks.

For Uber, the strategic logic is clear. Delivery Hero operates in more than 60 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America through brands like Foodpanda, Glovo, Talabat, and South Korea’s Baedal Minjok. It represents the largest non-U. S. food-delivery footprint globally. With DoorDash absorbing Deliveroo last year and Just Eat Takeaway selling to Prosus for $4.3 billion, Delivery Hero is the last major independent player of scale. A full acquisition would give Uber Eats a delivery network across the very markets where DoorDash now competes most aggressively.

Uber’s capital allocation in 2026 has been heavily focused elsewhere. The company has committed roughly $10 billion to its robotaxi programme, including a $1.25 billion investment in Rivian for a fleet of up to 50,000 autonomous R2 vehicles, alongside partnerships with Wayve, Nissan, Lucid, Nuro, and MOIA. Khosrowshahi has framed the broader strategy, in successive earnings calls, as building “everyday utility” across mobility, delivery, and commerce. Q1 2026 results showed gross bookings up 25% year on year and autonomous trips up tenfold. Adding Delivery Hero to the delivery leg fits that narrative.

Whether it fits at €33 is the open question. Uber shares slipped 1.6% on Friday after Bloomberg first reported the talks. The 1.76% discount to Delivery Hero’s Friday close gives investors arguing for €40 a clear rhetorical wedge, and gives the German board cover to push for a higher price.