DoorDash agreed on Thursday, October 29, to buy grocery delivery company Instacart in a deal worth about $17 billion, bringing America’s largest restaurant delivery platform and its largest grocery delivery platform under one owner.
The deal matters because it would concentrate a large share of US third-party delivery in one company, and because regulators have already signalled concern. The American Economic Liberties Project has urged the Federal Trade Commission to block it, arguing it would control nearly 60 percent of the third-party grocery delivery market.
DoorDash will pay $65 for each share of Maplebear Inc., the company that does business as Instacart. That price represents a 26 percent premium to Instacart’s closing price on October 22, the last trading day before media reports of a possible deal surfaced. Instacart shareholders can choose $65 in cash, 0.3372 DoorDash shares, or $48.75 in cash plus 0.0843 DoorDash shares for each share they own, with stock capped at 25 percent of the total consideration.
DoorDash plans to fund the cash portion from money on hand and new debt, including a 364-day senior unsecured bridge loan of up to $13 billion committed by JPMorgan Chase. There is no financing condition on the deal. Instacart’s board approved the agreement unanimously, and shareholders holding about 19 percent of its stock have already agreed to vote in favour. If the merger collapses on antitrust grounds, DoorDash would owe Instacart $1.25 billion, according to the regulatory filing reported by Reuters.
DoorDash co-founder and chief executive Tony Xu said the deal would combine Instacart’s grocery expertise with DoorDash’s delivery network. Instacart chief executive Chris Rogers said joining forces would let the company do even more for retailers, customers and shoppers.
Instacart works with more than 2,200 retail banners and about 100,000 stores, and its platform is used by roughly 600,000 independent contractor shoppers. DoorDash says Instacart customers would gain access to more than 50,000 additional stores, and the companies say combining DashPass and Instacart+ into a single fee would save customers an estimated $100 million a year in membership costs, although that figure is their own estimate.
Completion is not expected soon. The companies expect the transaction to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028, subject to an Instacart shareholder vote, expiry of the United States Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period, and regulatory approvals in Canada and Israel. On the same day as the acquisition announcement, the Federal Trade Commission disclosed a pricing probe covering DoorDash, Instacart and seven other companies in the retail and transportation sectors.
Instacart went public in 2023 after a pandemic-era boom in grocery delivery, but it has struggled to maintain momentum against larger competitors such as Uber, Amazon and Walmart. The Instacart purchase is DoorDash’s largest acquisition ever, above its roughly $8 billion Wolt deal.
For customers, nothing changes immediately. Both apps keep running as before, and any combined membership or wider store choice only arrives after the deal closes, and only if regulators allow it.
