DoorDash is in exclusive talks to acquire Instacart, according to people familiar with the matter. The negotiations may still end without a deal.
Instacart’s sale process was first reported by the Information. The Information also reported Uber’s interest in buying Instacart, though Bloomberg later reported that Uber’s interest had cooled.
The price being discussed and the structure of any transaction could not be determined. Instacart has a valuation of roughly $12 billion, and a conservative premium would put a likely sale price around $15 billion. DoorDash has a market capitalization of roughly $75 billion.
A combination would join Instacart’s grocery-store centric platform with DoorDash’s restaurant-focused business, creating a home-delivery giant. The enlarged company would operate in a market where Amazon and Walmart are the chief competitors.
DoorDash has tried this route before. It bid for Instacart in 2021 at a significantly higher valuation. Those talks broke down over price and concerns about antitrust pushback.
The policy setting has shifted since then. The Trump administration has taken a light-touch approach to other mergers, including the combination between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount. Senior Democrats have said they will seek to examine antitrust approvals and completed deals if Democrats succeed at the ballot box next month.
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