Instacart is in talks with DoorDash and Uber for a potential sale. Shares of Instacart closed about 9% higher on Friday. Analyst Zak Stambor said, "For Instacart, a deal could provide the resources and reach to compete more effectively." Discussions are ongoing, though no final deal is guaranteed yet.
Shares of Instacart closed about 9% higher on Friday. The company had a market value of about $12 billion as of Thursday's close.
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A potential takeover by Uber or DoorDash could bolster the buyer's online grocery delivery ambitions by combining Instacart's established marketplace and retailer ties with its own vast delivery network and customer base.
Discussions are ongoing with no guarantee of a deal, the report said, adding that a typical takeover premium of 30% to 40% would value Instacart at roughly $16 billion to $17 billion, based on recent public technology deals.
"Instacart risks getting squeezed between retailers building their own digital channels and larger platforms that can bundle grocery with other services, giving consumers more reasons to keep coming back," Emarketer analyst Zak Stambor said.
"For Instacart, a deal could provide the resources and reach to compete more effectively than it could on its own," he said.
In 2021, DoorDash had held talks to acquire Instacart, legally known as Maplebear, in a potential deal that would have valued it between $40 billion and $50 billion, The Information had reported. The concerns about Biden administration's antitrust approval derailed the talks.
Stambor said the latest deal is plausible as the Trump administration has shown "greater willingness" to approve deals even as "it could come at the cost of selling off parts of the business."
Reporting by Sanskriti Shekhar and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara