Uber's board met on Saturday to weigh raising its takeover offer for Germany's Delivery Hero after a major investor rejected the ride-hailing giant's opening bid, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The San Francisco company had offered €33 per share for all remaining Delivery Hero shares, valuing the Berlin-based group at roughly €10 billion (US$11.6 billion) - three cents above the German operator's closing price on Thursday, the session before Bloomberg first reported the talks.
Bid and rebuttal
The ride-hailing giant had already assembled a 19.5% stake in Delivery Hero before tabling its formal approach - including a 4.5% block bought from Prosus in April for €270 million, with further accumulation from the open market.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi flew to Oslo to meet supervisory board chair Kristin Skogen Lund, where the €33 figure was floated.
The Frankfurt-listed group confirmed the approach and said it "remains fully focused on executing its strategic review process".
Khosrowshahi's team then approached at least one significant holder privately at €38 per share and was rebuffed, per the FT.
Several shareholders are understood to be holding out for above €40 per share.
At €38, the private approach implied a 15.3% premium to Friday's close, per Reuters calculations, against a share price already up 48% year-to-date.
Restructured shareholder register
Aspex Management, the Hong Kong fund run by Hermes Li, built its position to roughly 15% over eight weeks - including a 5% block from Prosus at a premium in early May - while publicly demanding wholesale management changes.
Co-founder and CEO Niklas Östberg subsequently announced he would step down by 31 March 2027, with the supervisory board commencing a successor search while he oversees the strategic review.
The Prosus sell-downs were EU-mandated - Brussels required the Amsterdam-listed technology investor to reduce its Delivery Hero holding below 10% by late summer as a condition of its €4.1 billion Just Eat Takeaway.com acquisition, approved in August 2025.
With Prosus's residual stake in a non-voting trust and Aspex at 14-15%, the practical voting register at the 23 June AGM is materially different from any prior year.
The Hong Kong activist has publicly stated it wants assets sold through competitive processes, not bilateral deals.
Central to the German operator's valuation argument is its Dubai-listed subsidiary Talabat, which operates across MENA and in which the group retains an 80% stake.
Talabat's first-quarter gross merchandise value reached $2.7 billion, up 19% year-on-year, with revenue crossing $1 billion, a 23% increase - numbers Bernstein analyst Annick Maas attributed to "noticeably better business trends" across the region.
The Dubai-listed unit guides for full-year net profit of $300 million to $330 million, underpinning the group's adjusted operating profit target of €910 million to €960 million, with free cash flow projected above €200 million.
DoorDash has separately expressed interest in Talabat specifically, per a person familiar with the matter, though no formal offer has been made and no shares purchased.
Deal pipeline
The American rival has held discussions with Delivery Hero investors but has not tabled a formal approach for the full company or any individual asset, per the FT.
DoorDash's international footprint has expanded through its Deliveroo acquisition, with Q1 2026 marketplace gross order value up 37% year-on-year, or 24% excluding that contribution.
The ride-hailing giant, meanwhile, is pending regulatory clearance on its acquisition of Getir's food delivery business - which generated over $1 billion in gross bookings in 2025, up more than 50% year-on-year - expected to close in the second half of 2026, alongside a pending $550 million acquisition of Berlin-based chauffeur service Blacklane.
