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Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

nytimes.com

71–80 of 150 posts

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#71

Is it just me or are all these delivery apps pretty much the same thing, just with different restaurants? In SF at least Grubhub tends to have some of the more "typical delivery" choices (pizza, chinese food, thai) and decent customer service, Doordash seems to have the most variety but the dashers take their merry time on their way to you (and customer service is nonexistent), Uber Eats is somewhere in between grubh…

Why is cold food a problem? It is easy to heat it up in a microwave right?

> Why is cold food a problem? It is easy to heat it up in a microwave right?

I think its dependent on the type of food. As some foods simply don't hold well, and shouldn't be offered as a to-go 'fried calamari,' 'pasta carbonara' 'tempura' or sushi etc... and cannot be re-heated. But, even other things like fries taste pretty poorly when cold and could spoil an entire meal.

Whereas, drunken noodles, pizza or a chiptole burrito can easily be re-heated and taste just as good.

I've ordered Doordash 5 times over that observation period, and all but one time the food was pretty warm, but that's because I tipped $5-10 and the restaurants I ordered from were near by and less than a 4 miles radius from my home. Since it was simply re-heatedable stuff I didn't mind, also, I wasn't really interested in the food so much as data aggregation.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#72

Genuine question: why? I completely understand acquisitions that create value by providing economies of scale, monopoly power or network benefits, or diversify or complement a company's activities. But for a European market leader to buy an American market leader in what is ultimately an extremely local business... I see no real added benefit here. Few further economies of scale when you're already at continent-size…

This is an all stock deal, so valuations are about as realistic as a televised poker tournament. No one is paying a 27% premium in cash; they're spending their own ridiculously valued stock. There is no business model in the world that makes grubhub a 7B company. If proven wrong I will gladly eat a hat delivered by them.

Just Eat had a very nice profit of 101m GBP, so the business model works. However Grubhub is not that impressive, with a 12% YoY Growth, Compared to Just-Eats 43%.

From Grubhub "Revenues: $363.0 million, a 12% year-over-year increase from $323.8 million in the first quarter of 2019."

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#73
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mergers and acquisitions rarely work out for the entities as such. To understand why they nonetheless continue to happen so often it’s necessary to peer beyond the corporate veil and look at the incentives of the individual players.

> Mergers and acquisitions rarely work out Instagram DoubleClick NeXT Here are some businesses off the top of my head that are thriving because of their acquisitions.

From https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-mergers-fail/

One KPMG study found that 83 percent of these deals hadn't boosted shareholder returns, while a separate study by A.T. Kearney concluded that total returns on M&A were negative.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#74
post #70
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An oft-cited HBR article, https://hbr.org/2016/06/ma-the-one-thing-you-need-to-get-rig... , states that 70-90% of acquisitions are considered failures.

One of the things that article overlooks though is that almost all multinational companies wouldn’t be what they are today without acquisition and inorganic growth. Even that article says it: if Google avoided acquisitions they wouldn’t have Android and YouTube. Disney wouldn’t have Pixar and Fox. The biggest companies in the world would be different - and for the surviving multinationals often their acquisitions def…

How different would Disney be without Pixar? Not different at all. And fox? Too early to tell.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#75
post #64
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried pizza pie? But really, the economics are all in operations and scale. Some people may complain that they can’t get delivery 10 miles away from a restaurant.. but they aren’t willing to tip or pay higher for the back and forth a driver must do to earn more than it costs to pay them. Cutting to 5 or even 3 miles for delivery ranges makes a big difference for orders per hour.

> they aren’t willing to tip I wish everybody would stop tipping. If nobody subsidized delivery workers' wages with tips, delivery companies would have to start paying workers enough to make it actually worth their time to begin with, and pass those costs onto VCs and eventually consumers. More reliable income for the delivery workers, more transparent delivery pricing for consumers. What's not to like? A similar dyn…

DoorDash (and maybe others; not sure) pay the drivers less (on average) if you tip.

So, tip with cash instead of not tipping at all. It costs you the same, and the delivery person is paid more.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#76
post #2

I read an article with some details from the Uber side on why that deal fell through. I never thought I'd read an article where Uber seemed to be on the ethical right side of things... "Uber also believed it would would need to stop several undesirable business practices from Grubhub, including phone charges and cybersquatting, or buying domain names with the intent to profit from them. Grubhub has denied cybersquatt…

Aah thuisbezorgd/takeaway does squad domains so grubhub will fit right in.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#77

Is it just me or are all these delivery apps pretty much the same thing, just with different restaurants? In SF at least Grubhub tends to have some of the more "typical delivery" choices (pizza, chinese food, thai) and decent customer service, Doordash seems to have the most variety but the dashers take their merry time on their way to you (and customer service is nonexistent), Uber Eats is somewhere in between grubh…

> Doordash seems to have the most variety but the dashers take their merry time on their way to you (and customer service is nonexistent)

I was picking up sandwiches from a popular sandwich joint last week and the Doordash drivers were picking up multiple orders each time. So most likely the "delay" is really them stopping at other houses to drop off food on their way to you, or vice versa.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#78
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things that article overlooks though is that almost all multinational companies wouldn’t be what they are today without acquisition and inorganic growth. Even that article says it: if Google avoided acquisitions they wouldn’t have Android and YouTube. Disney wouldn’t have Pixar and Fox. The biggest companies in the world would be different - and for the surviving multinationals often their acquisitions def…

How different would Disney be without Pixar? Not different at all. And fox? Too early to tell.

Name one decent Disney animated movie that was released after Pixar was founded (excluding Pixar films post-acquisition).

There aren’t many because most of Disney’s talent left around when Pixar was founded. Without movies to continuously hook new kids, their entire empire is a house of cards.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#79
post #64
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried pizza pie? But really, the economics are all in operations and scale. Some people may complain that they can’t get delivery 10 miles away from a restaurant.. but they aren’t willing to tip or pay higher for the back and forth a driver must do to earn more than it costs to pay them. Cutting to 5 or even 3 miles for delivery ranges makes a big difference for orders per hour.

> they aren’t willing to tip I wish everybody would stop tipping. If nobody subsidized delivery workers' wages with tips, delivery companies would have to start paying workers enough to make it actually worth their time to begin with, and pass those costs onto VCs and eventually consumers. More reliable income for the delivery workers, more transparent delivery pricing for consumers. What's not to like? A similar dyn…

Just stop counting tips for minimum wage and pay everybody a liveable wage. You can't start this change from the tipping side, because that way it primarily it hurts the workers.

Re: Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or you could, ya know, walk 8 blocks and keep the restaurant in business, but hey, we all have our limits.

wait... this comment is confusing. how is he not contributing towards "keeping the restaurant in business" by ordering delivery vs picking it up in person?

When you order through a delivery service, the restaurant is generally paid less than their normal menu price, and none of the tips go to the kitchen staff.

In addition to charging the restaurant, the delivery service charges the customer a higher price than the restaurant would. They add delivery fees and service fees. On top of that, the online menus in the delivery service apps often have higher prices than the restaurant’s “real” menu.

Restaurants often negotiate special deals with the delivery services, so all these details can vary. However, delivery app margins are much lower than carry out or dine in margins.

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