Uber has decided to acquire Delivery Hero for $15 billion. Why are the shares trading below the buyout price?

Uber has agreed to acquire the German food delivery service Delivery Hero for €41.50 per share. The deal values the company at €12.7 billion ($14.8 billion), and the final price turned out to be a quarter higher than Uber’s initial offer of €33 per share, made in May.

Since the beginning of the year, Delivery Hero’s stock has risen 66%. However, on July 16, it was trading in Frankfurt down 1% and €3 below the buyout price. Handelsblatt notes that the deal is not expected to close until the second half of 2027—it will still require approval from antitrust and financial regulatory authorities. Obtaining that approval will not be easy, even after the sale of part of Delivery Hero’s business, the publication points out.

Uber announced that it will acquire Delivery Hero's business in 50 markets. The acquisition will significantly expand Uber's presence in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and the total number of countries where the company operates will increase from 79 to 99, according to Bloomberg.

The Dutch company Prosus, which owns about 17% of Delivery Hero, will sell its entire stake to Uber. Handelsblatt calls this move unexpected: Prosus had previously claimed that European Union regulations prohibited it from selling more than 5% of the company’s shares to a strategic investor.

In fact, Uber will likely pay significantly less than one might expect based on Delivery Hero’s valuation of €12.7 billion, according to Handelsblatt. Uber CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy previously stated that the stake the company already owns was purchased at an average price of just over €30 per share, the publication notes.

Prior to the acquisition, Delivery Hero will sell its assets in 14 countries (including Austria, Greece, Chile, and Turkey) to the investment firm SSW Partners for $1.6 billion. SSW will manage these divisions until it finds buyers for them. According to Handelsblatt, this involves a gross order volume of €11 billion—about one-fifth of Delivery Hero’s total business. Such a divestiture could address some of the regulators’ concerns about the deal, Bloomberg notes.

The food delivery market experienced a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic, when dozens of new players entered the market, and has begun to consolidate rapidly in recent years, according to Bloomberg. In 2025, DoorDash acquired Deliveroo, and Prosus acquired Just Eat Takeaway.

“The proposed deal further cements consolidation as the defining theme of a mature, capital-intensive market,” said PitchBook analyst Navina Rajan (as quoted by Handelsblatt). According to Rajan, valuations in the sector have yet to recover from the record highs of 2021–2022, making a sale the preferred strategy for many major players.

The fact that the acquisition target was the profitable Delivery Hero shows that M&A deals in the industry are not limited to loss-making companies, the analyst noted. Previously, it was mainly unprofitable services—such as Gorillas and Getir—that changed hands, explains Handelsblatt.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor