15th Nov 2024 07:53
(Alliance News) - Just Eat Takeaway.com NV rejected two USD1 billion offers for Grubhub, the US unit's former boss told the Financial Times.
The FT reported on Friday that Matt Maloney, Grubhub's co-founder and former chief executive, twice attempted to buy back the food delivery provider for over USD1 billion. Just Eat Takeaway announced on Wednesday that it sold the business for USD650 million to Wonder Group Inc.
"Both were rejected by JET management. After the second attempt I was told that [JET chief executive] Jitse [Groen] was not interested in selling the company back to me, so I stopped trying and no one reached out to me or my financial partners around the time of this deal to inquire if we would beat this offer," he told the FT.
Nonetheless, the FT said Maloney was "excited" for what comes next for Grubhub.
The FT reported that Just Eat Takeaway said in a statement that "two private equity approaches that had some involvement of Mr Maloney in 2022 and 2023". However, it denied that they were rejected. Instead, it said the firms ended up "retracting themselves post due diligence".
On Wednesday, the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based food delivery platform said it has struck a deal to sell Grubhub for USD650 million.
The sale is expected to complete during the first-quarter of 2025.
Just Eat Takeaway bought Chicago, US-based Grubhub back in June 2021 for USD7.3 billion, but not long after in June 2022 announced that it was exploring a full or partial sale of the platform.
Just Eat Takeaway shares closed up 9.1% to 1,178.00 pence in London on Thursday. They had jumped 15% on Wednesday.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
Comments and questions to [email protected]
Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.