Will Deliveroo change its name? DoorDash offers 180p a share in takeover bid
UK-based food delivery giant Deliveroo has been taken over by a US rival - but what changes could be on the way.
DoorDash has agreed to pay £2.9bn for Deliveroo, which will net the UK firm’s founder Will Shu about £172m. Staff will also share a payout of £65m as they hold around 36m shares. Doordash has offered 180p a share, which was described last month as “by no means a knock-out offer” for the firm, which could have attracted rival bidders.
Deliveroo was co-founded by Mr Shu in London in 2013, and now operates in nine other countries - France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar - with more than 130,000 riders. It made sales of around £2bn in 2024.
It does not overlap with San Francisco-based DoorDash, which was also set up in 2013, co-founded by chief executive Tony Xu, who has led the company ever since.
It operates in over 30 countries and delivers more than 2.5bn orders a year, helping it notch up revenues of $10.7bn (£8bn) in 2024.
In total the new firm will therefore have a presence across 40 countries and handle about $90bn (£67.7bn) of orders each year.
Will Deliveroo change its name to DoorDash?
The firms said in a joint statement: “The combination with Deliveroo will strengthen DoorDash’s position as a leading global platform in local commerce, enabling the combined entity to better serve businesses, consumers and couriers.”
It has not been revealed whether the names will be changed, but DoorDash is expected to kickstart a six to 12-month review of the merged group on completion of the deal.
It said while it was too early to confirm the exact changes that would be made, it expects a potential reduction of around 1% to 3% of the combined workforce, largely in general administrative and business support roles.
“It is anticipated that efforts will be made to mitigate the need for redundancies through the standalone growth of the enlarged group, natural attrition, and the slowing or pausing of select hiring plans, and redundancies at Deliveroo are not expected to be material,” they said.
Some of Deliveroo’s offices and support functions would also no longer be needed, given that it would not be listed after the deal, which would result in a “small number” of job cuts, they added.
But the firms said that DoorDash does not plan to make major changes to Deliveroo’s London headquarters. DoorDash also confirmed it would honour the agreement between Deliveroo’s riders and the GMB trade union.
What has Will Shu said about the DoorDash Deliveroo takeover?
Mr Shu said: “We are now at the beginning of a transformative new chapter.
“DoorDash and Deliveroo are like-minded organisations with a shared strategic vision and aligned values. Together, we will be even better positioned to serve consumers, merchants, riders and local communities. The enlarged group will have the scale to invest in product, technology and the overall consumer value proposition.”
The deal is expected to complete in the final three months of 2025 but will need to be approved by Deliveroo’s shareholders.
It comes after Deliveroo confirmed late last month that it had received an “indicative proposal” from US takeaway app firm DoorDash on April 5. The 180p-a-share deal marks a 44% premium to the closing price of Deliveroo’s shares on April 4, before the approach was made by DoorDash.