Following news earlier this year that Uber was interested in acquiring foodpanda's Taiwan food delivery business, foodpanda's parent company Delivery Hero earlier confirmed that Uber would acquire its Taiwan food delivery business for US$9 million in cash, making it one of Taiwan's largest international mergers and acquisitions in history, excluding the semiconductor industry.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025, subject to approval by Taiwanese regulators. Uber will also acquire approximately $3 million worth of newly issued common stock in Delivery Hero.
Niklas Östberg, CEO and co-founder of Delivery Hero, said: "The strength of our operations in Taiwan is the result of the hard work of our team over the past eight years. To build a world-leading service, we have concluded that we need to focus our resources on our operations in other global markets, where we believe we can make the greatest contribution to our customers, partners, and riders. This acquisition represents an exciting prospect for foodpanda in Taiwan, and we sincerely wish them the best in the future."
Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Senior Vice President of Global Food Delivery at Uber, said: "Combining our respective platforms' unique consumer demographics, merchants, and operational footprints will help us provide consumers with more choice and the best prices, merchants with more orders, and delivery partners with more opportunities to take orders. Taiwan is a highly competitive market, and food delivery platforms have only captured a small portion of the overall food delivery landscape. We are excited about the opportunities this acquisition will provide us to bring even greater convenience and value to Taiwan in the years ahead."
Previously, Delivery Hero had planned to sell its foodpanda business in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand to Southeast Asian food delivery giant Grab, but a deal subsequently failed. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese business appeared to be in talks with Uber about a potential acquisition, though no further details were released at the time.
The transfer of Foodpanda's Taiwan operations to Uber for US$9 million has been finalized. It is expected that existing Foodpanda users, participating restaurants, and delivery partners in Taiwan will be gradually transitioned to the Uber Eats platform. Uber emphasized Taiwan as a key market for its global food delivery expansion and stressed that this acquisition reflects its strong confidence in the Taiwanese market.
As for before the completion of the transaction, the foodpanda business will continue to provide services in Taiwan, and its assets will not be officially incorporated into the Uber Eats operating system until the transaction is completed.
Uber said that this acquisition will enable it to better complement its food delivery business in Taiwan. For example, Uber Eats offers a wider range of options in northern Taiwan and major cities, while Foodpanda offers more options in southern Taiwan and smaller cities. Therefore, the merger will bring greater business growth opportunities in the future.
The main reason why Delivery Hero sold its Asian market business was that it was difficult to promote growth in the Asian market after the epidemic lockdown was lifted, and it faced market competition from Grab and Uber Eats. Therefore, it finally decided to split and sell its Asian market business.
