Uber buys Postmates meals-shipping and delivery support

Uber has purchased food-shipping provider Postmates, the two firms announced.

Uber formerly was in the working to obtain rival food items shipping and delivery service GrubHub, but talks broke down as the two firms could not agree on a rate and the journey-sharing company grew discouraged with what it perceived as stalling strategies, as CNBC previously claimed. GrubHub in its place sold to European food items shipping company JustEatTakeaway in early June.

Uber is banking on foodstuff delivery to help sustain its enterprise through the coronavirus pandemic, as demand from customers for journey-sharing has plunged. In its first-quarter earnings call, Uber reported that gross bookings profits for its Rides segment was down 80% in April from a year ago, even though gross bookings revenue in Eats was up a lot more than 50% during that exact same period. 

Postmates is the fourth-major U.S. food items supply company by marketplace share and has struggled to compete nationally versus DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats. Even now, the organization has experienced achievements in distinct urban areas this sort of as Los Angeles and Miami.

Postmates experienced reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO in February 2019, but delayed its providing later on that 12 months amid deteriorating sector problems and hard competitiveness, in accordance to Recode.

Postmates had also been taking into consideration re-setting up the IPO procedure, as nicely as an provide from a distinctive reason acquisition enterprise (SPAC) — basically a shell firm that exists only to consider a different enterprise public, CNBC formerly reported. The San Francisco-based mostly business was valued at $2.4 billion in its previous fundraising round in September, Reuters claimed.

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—CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.