Uber is reportedly in talks to buy out San Francisco based food delivery company Postmates for about $2.6 billion.
According to the New York Times, the deal is still underway and could go through any time soon.
Uber has been eyeing food delivery deals consistently in the past period to compensate for the collapse of its main business. Barely a month ago, Uber made an offer to buy Grubhub also a food delivery company that was acquired by Just Eat Takeaway in a $7. 3 billion deal.
Postmates, was founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, is the smallest among the major U.S. players. The company has raised roughly $906 million and was valued at around $2.4 billion in 2019. according to PitchBook.
According to the Wallstreet Journal, it had confidentially filed for an IPO in February of last year, but the plan was delayed when the IPO market became less hospitable to unprofitable startups such as Postmates in the wake of WeWork’s aborted IPO.
The food delivery sector since the onset fo the COVID-19 pandemic has benefitted largely. While food stores and joints remain closed for the better part of the year. Food delivery companies are picking up with growing demand.
In the latest reveal by TechCrunch, Uber Eats last quarter gross bookings amounted to $4.68 billion with a 2.9 billion loss on all costs. Uber Eats growth is still staggering.
Uber reported a Q1 per-share loss of $1.70 and revenues of $3.54 billion, making for a mixed set of results when compared to expectations. The company lost a staggering $2.94 billion in the quarter counting all costs, a figure that even for Uber feels excessively large.