DoorDash is in advanced talks to buy grocery delivery app Instacart in a deal that could value the company at about $17 billion, a takeover that would unite America's dominant restaurant-delivery platform with the leader in online grocery delivery and could be finalized as soon as Wednesday. Instacart, which trades on the Nasdaq as Maplebear Inc., was worth about $13 billion at Friday's close, so the price under discussion would hand its shareholders a substantial premium. The talks are advanced but not done — people familiar with the matter caution there is no guarantee the deal comes together, and the two companies could still walk away.
The other bidder is already gone. Instacart had been exploring a sale and held preliminary discussions with both DoorDash and Uber, but its talks with Uber are no longer active, leaving DoorDash as the buyer at the table. Neither company is confirming anything publicly: Instacart declined to comment on the reports, and DoorDash did not immediately respond. Word that Instacart was shopping itself around first surfaced on Friday, when its shares jumped about 9 percent; a typical takeover premium of 30 to 40 percent was always likely to put the price in the $16 billion to $17 billion range, and the figure now under discussion sits right at the top of it. No terms have been reported — whether DoorDash would pay in cash, in stock, or a mix of the two has not been established.
Investors delivered their verdict on Monday, and it split the two companies. Instacart's shares rose about 8 percent to a record high — analysts who follow the stock say a $17 billion price works out to roughly $65 a share, about 27 percent above Friday's close — while DoorDash fell around 6 percent, the familiar pattern of a market that likes the company being bought more than the one writing the cheque. DoorDash can afford the ambition: it is worth roughly $73 billion, more than five times Instacart's value before this week's run. Uber, out of the race, closed nearly 1 percent lower.
The logic of the deal is about groceries, and about the two giants already there. DoorDash built its business on restaurant delivery and has been pushing into grocery and retail to keep growing; Instacart brings the established grocery marketplace and the retailer relationships DoorDash has been trying to build on its own. Put together, analysts say, the pair would be the strongest challenger yet to Walmart and Amazon, which have been rapidly building out their own grocery delivery networks and squeezing Instacart from both sides — taking its business directly while retailers build digital channels of their own. "Strategically, DoorDash looks like the more natural fit for Instacart, given the complementary strengths of its restaurant delivery network and Instacart's grocery expertise," said Nick Smith, co-founder of growth strategy consultancy Manifesto Growth Architects. Analysts also point to money the combined company could save, loyalty programs the two could merge, and room to expand abroad — DoorDash has already bought Britain's Deliveroo and Finland's Wolt, while Uber has absorbed Postmates and Germany's Delivery Hero in the same industry-wide consolidation.
Instacart comes to the table weaker than its position suggests. It is still the leader in online grocery — its gross transaction value is projected at about $42.3 billion this year on roughly 370 million orders — but growth has cooled since its 2023 stock market debut: its advertising revenue growth slipped from 19 percent in 2023 to 11 percent in each of the last two years, and its shares have badly lagged the wider market since the listing. This is also not the first time the two companies have circled each other. In 2021, when private investors valued Instacart at $39 billion, takeover talks with DoorDash at a possible $40 billion to $50 billion collapsed in part over fears that regulators in Washington would block the deal — and a combined DoorDash–Instacart would today be worth barely a third of that 2021 high-water mark.
That regulatory question is the biggest hurdle again. A deal would bulk up two of the biggest food-delivery platforms in the United States in one move, and analysts warned from the first reports on Friday that it could draw antitrust scrutiny. What has changed since 2021 is the administration: analysts cite a more favorable regulatory environment in Washington now, and Emarketer analyst Zak Stambor noted the current administration's "greater willingness" to approve deals — though approval, if it comes, could carry conditions, including selling off parts of the business. No regulator has commented on this deal, and whether Washington waves it through is the largest unanswered question hanging over Wednesday's possible announcement.
For ordinary households, the help on offer is concrete if the deal delivers what its backers promise. One account and one membership would cover both dinner and the weekly grocery run, with analysts expecting the two loyalty programs to be combined — one subscription instead of two. A stronger rival is also the shopper's best protection on price: a combined DoorDash–Instacart with the scale to stand up to Walmart and Amazon gives families a real alternative instead of a choice between two giants, and the savings analysts expect from joining the two operations are the kind that fund lower fees, faster deliveries and grocery delivery reaching smaller towns the big chains pass by. The people who do the delivering gain too: couriers and shoppers who work both platforms would be able to take restaurant and grocery orders through one company, filling the quiet hours that eat into a driver's day.
For the Americans who use these apps every day, the stakes are practical. Between them, DoorDash and Instacart already handle a huge share of what the country gets delivered — dinner from one, the weekly grocery run from the other — and a single owner for both would leave Walmart and Amazon as the main remaining rivals at that scale. Supporters of the deal say that scale is exactly what it takes to compete with those two giants and keep delivery fast and cheap; the open question, which no one can answer yet, is what one less independent competitor means for the fees, prices and choices shoppers see. Wednesday may settle whether the deal exists at all. What it would mean at the front door gets argued after that.
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