When DoorDash Met Wolt, Stock Surged

When DoorDash Met Wolt, Stock Surged In a joint statement, on Tuesday evening, San Francisco based online food ordering and delivery platform — DoorDash, Inc, and Helsinki headquartered Wolt Enterprises OY (“Wolt”), another food delivery company, announced that they have entered into an agreement whereby DoorDash will acquire Wolt in an $8.1 billion all-stock transaction. With this, DoorDash gets an opportunity to set a foot in Europe for the first time. At present, it is spread across the cities across the US, Canada, Japan, and Australia.

“We have an opportunity to build a global platform for local commerce in the internet era,” said Tony Xu, Co-founder and CEO of DoorDash. “Joining forces with Wolt will deepen our pool of superb talent and allow us to accelerate our international growth while elevating our focus on the U.S. We expect the ingenuity, product expertise, and operational excellence of our combined company to expand our TAM, improve our investment efficiency, increase our long-term profit potential, and generate significant shareholder value.”

Once all formalities for acquisition are done, Miki Kuusi will take the charge of DoorDash International, reporting to Tony Xu. Also, all of Wolt’s 4,000 employees will be working for their new owner– DoorDash. Under the new leadership, the company sees a possibility to expand internationally, speed up product development, and improve investment efficiency. Besides, the company is in all mood to continue investing aggressively in the newly formed team to establish a growing global business. "sesn stock news"

In 2019, DoorDash, in the hope of remaining the big fish ( big company) in the business, ate up Square’s food delivery service business- Caviar for $410 million and in the same year, Scotty Labs, a startup building remote-controlled vehicles to achieve autonomous deliveries, became a part of DoorDash’s portfolio.

Earlier in February this year, the food delivery company acquired Chowbotics, a Bay Area-based robotics company famous for its salad-making robot, Sally.

The latest acquisition is one of the biggest in the global rebounding food-delivery market, as in the last year, Europe’s Just Eat Takeaway.com NV bought Grubhub for $7.3 billion while Uber Technologies Inc. bought Postmates Inc. for $2.65 billion.

“DoorDash and Wolt share a vision to build a global platform for local commerce that empowers the communities we operate in,” said Tony Xu. “Under the leadership of Miki Kuusi, Wolt has built a culture of optimism, operational rigour, and bias for action that matches our own. By joining forces, we believe we will accelerate our product development, bring greater focus to each of our markets, and improve the value we provide to consumers, merchants, as well as Dashers and couriers around the world.”

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is the exclusive financial advisor to DoorDash, while Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Allen & Overy LLP and Avance Attorneys Ltd are the legal advisors that will oversee the transaction.

Qatalyst Partners is the exclusive financial advisor to Wolt, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Roschier, Attorneys Ltd. are its legal advisors.

Doordash, which also posted fiscal third-quarter results, reported a wider than expected third-quarter loss per share but outperformed revenue estimates. In the reporting quarter, it had to bear a loss per share of 30 cents on $1.28 billion revenue. Analysts anticipated a loss of 26 cents on $1.18 billion revenue. The company also reported a net loss of $101 million, more than twice the loss of $43 million, it posted during the same quarter in 2020.

New customers who became part of the Doordash family were less than the number of peak levels in 2020 but above 2019.

When DoorDash Met Wolt, Stock Surges

Following the announcement, DoorDash stock rose more than 24% in after-hours trading following an initial fall. On Wednesday, the shares of the food delivery company jumped to an intraday high of $232.00, a big leap since May 14. In a single day, the retail investors earned $22.23, as the stock closed at $214.24, up 11.58% from its previous day’s close of $192.01. This move bought gains this year to as much as 55.8%, having a market cap at about $75 billion.

On Wednesday, the social engagement for the stock amongst the users of Twitter and Reddit rose nearly 30% from its previous day combined with an increase of more than 300% in the trading volume.

Today, the stock opened the market at $219.26, up 2.34% from its previous day’s close.

Dollar General & DoorDash Partnership

Dollar General a variety store company, Thursday, announced entering into a strategic partnership with DoorDash, the US’s leading last-mile logistics platform, to facilitate on-demand delivery of household essential items, including food, snacks, cleaning supplies amongst others.

“At Dollar General, we strive to make shopping hassle-free and affordable, and our partnership with DoorDash reiterates DG’s commitment to providing convenient and contactless options,” said Emily Taylor, Dollar General’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer. “We look forward to providing both existing and new customers with an even faster and more convenient way to experience all that DG has to offer.”

Consumers can place orders for same-day delivery (under 60-minutes on average) through DoorDash’s marketplace app or website. A customer will need not worry about selecting any time slot or minimum order size as the company has done away from such requirements.

“Our platform was designed to connect consumers to their communities, providing increased access to food, everyday essentials, and other local goods,” said Tom Pickett, chief revenue officer at DoorDash. “We are thrilled to partner with Dollar General to provide customers across the country with convenient access to the everyday essentials they need at the affordable price points they have come to trust. With this partnership, we are proud to expand our services to areas that traditionally have not had access to same-day delivery.”