Shares in Deliveroo (ROO) rose amid reports that American firm Doordash (DASH) has started takeover talks with the UK-based food delivery company. That has led to suggestions other rivals may decide to enter a bidding war shortly.
Takeover Rumours Cause Deliveroo Share Price Rise
discussions between the two companies ended in a stalemate over their differing opinions of the value of any proposed deal.
ROO shares are listed on the LSE, and they rose by 6% early on Wednesday before falling back to end the day with a 1.2% increase that left the company valued at £2.1bn ($2.6bn). That comes after a disappointing run of results that has seen ROO shares worth less than half the original price when the company was listed in early 2021.
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Deliveroo boomed during the COVID-19 lockdowns and now has a network made up of 140,000 riders who work with 180,000 restaurants. Amazon (AMZN) is currently the biggest shareholder in ROO, with a stake of over 13%, followed by DST Global, a venture capital outfit based in the Cayman Islands.
Following the news, DASH shares – which are listed on the NASDAQ exchange – fell but recovered later in the day to end the day 1.25% higher than the starting price.
Deliveroo CEO Will Shu said in a recent interview that:
The main challenge is working with my team to spot that next bump in the road and making sure we’ve got the right plans in place not only to overcome it, but to emerge stronger as a result.
