Grubhub’s stockholders approved the proposed acquisition by Just Eat Takeaway.com on Thursday (June 10), according to a press release.
Just Eat Takeaway will acquire all of Grubhub’s shares, creating one of the world’s largest food delivery platforms, per the release. The deal is expected to close on June 15, 2021.
“We are pleased that Grubhub stockholders overwhelmingly supported the recommendation of Grubhub’s board of directors on the pending combination with Just Eat Takeaway.com and voted in favor of the transaction,” said Matt Maloney, Grubhub’s founder and chief executive officer, in the press release.
Just Eat Takeaway’s shareholders approved the deal in October. Although the deal is intuitive, it does pose some risks, as PYMNTS previously reported. For one, the partnership could disrupt each platform’s relationships with restaurants and suppliers. An SEC filing noted that “restaurants and suppliers may attempt to negotiate changes in existing business relationships or consider entering into business relationships with third parties.”
And restaurant aggregators in general face an uphill battle, despite the “bring it to me” trend of the past year. Restaurants aren’t happy with the economics of their delivery partnerships, and customers don’t want an “uncertain two-hour window,” Karen Webster has previously noted. And while aggregators can fill the delivery void of the restaurant experience, “it’s also the part of the experience that others with logistics expertise and a supply of drivers could help fill.”
GrubHub had 33 million active users as of the end of the first quarter. Just Eat Takeaway saw total orders surge 79 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2021.