Grubs Up

Image source: Diego Thomazini, pio3 - Shutterstock

What's going on?

Food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway announced a new partnership with Amazon on Wednesday.

What does this mean?

The pandemic brought out the best in the food delivery industry, and Just Eat was positively heady with the success of the moment: it bought US company Grubhub for $7.3 billion in 2020 a move that finally gave it a foothold Stateside. But with restaurants reopening left, right, and center, that success has evaporated almost as quickly as it arrived. Investors, then, have been putting Just Eat under pressure to sell the offshoot, and its been giving the idea some serious thought.

At the same time, though, the companys been thinking about how to turn things around. Cue a new deal with Amazon thatll offer US Prime users a one-year membership to Grubhub, which analysts think could help bring in new customers and boost the services standing. The solution seems to work for investors: they sent Just Eats shares up 20% their biggest jump in nearly four years.

Why should I care?

Zooming in: Whoa, dj vu.
If this all feels familiar, its because Amazon launched its own restaurant delivery business back in 2015, before shuttering the segment in 2019 when it failed to establish itself as a key player. This deal is arguably a safer bet: Amazon will receive warrants stock options, essentially that represent a 2% stake in Grubhub, and it could increase that ownership to 15% if it fulfills certain performance conditions, like bringing enough new customers through Grubhubs door.

Zooming out: Amazon goes green.
Amazon is changing the way it delivers parcels too, announcing this week that itll start delivering packages by electric bike and on foot for the first time in the UK. Its all part of its goal to make half its shipments net-zero by 2030, and 100% by 2040.

Originally posted as part of the Finimize daily email.

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