DoorDash signs $17 billion deal to acquire Instacart, ending weeks of takeover speculation

DoorDash and Instacart announced a definitive merger agreement on October 29, confirming weeks of reported takeover talks. Under the terms disclosed in DoorDash's SEC filing, DoorDash will pay $65.00 per share for Instacart, valuing the grocery-delivery platform at an equity value of approximately $17 billion — a 26% premium over Instacart's closing price on October 22, the last trading day before media first reported the talks.

The deal caps off a bidding situation that had included Uber as a competing suitor. Reuters reported that Instacart's talks with Uber are no longer active, leaving DoorDash as the sole acquirer. The Wall Street Journal first reported DoorDash's advanced talks on October 26, and the companies moved from rumor to signed agreement in roughly three days — an unusually fast timeline for a deal of this size, suggesting both boards had been negotiating well before the leaks became public.

Instacart shareholders get a choice of consideration for each share: $65.00 in cash, 0.3372 shares of DoorDash common stock, or a mixed option of $48.75 in cash plus 0.0843 DoorDash shares. Stock consideration is capped at 25% of the total deal, with proration if stock elections are oversubscribed — meaning the deal is overwhelmingly a cash transaction by design. DoorDash will fund the cash portion from its existing balance sheet and debt financing, backed by a 364-day senior unsecured bridge loan commitment from JPMorgan Chase. The company says the transaction isn't contingent on securing that financing and that it's targeting a capital structure that preserves investment-grade credit ratings.

Instacart's board approved the agreement unanimously, and shareholders controlling roughly 19% of outstanding shares have already committed to vote in favor — a strong signal that opposition from Instacart's own investor base is unlikely to derail the deal.

The strategic logic is straightforward scale-building. Instacart generated $3.75 billion in revenue last year against DoorDash's $13.72 billion, making this primarily a bolt-on acquisition for DoorDash's grocery and retail delivery ambitions rather than a merger of equals. DoorDash has pointed to a multi-year path toward more than $500 million in annual cost and revenue synergies, though it plans to reinvest more than 100% of first-year synergies back into the combined business before turning net-positive from year two onward — a sign the company expects integration costs to run high initially.

Closing isn't imminent. The companies are targeting completion between the end of 2027 and the first half of 2028, pending Instacart shareholder approval, expiration of the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period in the US, and regulatory clearance in Canada and Israel. That long runway reflects the antitrust scrutiny any deal combining two of the largest standalone delivery platforms in North America is likely to draw, even though the companies occupy largely distinct categories — restaurant delivery for DoorDash, grocery for Instacart.

The combined company would compete more directly with Walmart and Amazon, both of which have been expanding their own same-day grocery and retail delivery operations. For DoorDash, folding Instacart's grocery logistics network and retailer relationships into its existing restaurant-delivery infrastructure gives it a more complete answer to that competitive pressure than either company could offer alone.