Instacart jumps about 9% on report it held preliminary sale talks with Uber and DoorDash

CART closed about 9% higher on Friday, October 23, after The Information reported that the grocery-delivery company is exploring a sale and has held preliminary discussions with potential buyers including UBER and DASH. Bloomberg separately reported that Instacart has explored a potential sale in a process that has included talks with Uber, citing a person familiar with the matter. Instacart declined to comment to Reuters, and Uber and DoorDash did not immediately respond.

The talks are early. According to the report, discussions are ongoing with no guarantee of a deal. Instacart had a market value of about $12 billion as of Thursday's close, and The Information estimated that a typical takeover premium of 30% to 40% would value the company at roughly $16 billion to $17 billion. The would-be buyers moved the other way: Uber closed down around 3% and DoorDash about 4% lower on the day.

This is not the first time the pairing has come up. DoorDash held talks to acquire Instacart in 2021 in a deal that valued it between $40 billion and $50 billion, and those talks fell apart partly over antitrust concerns. That history is the main open question now: both suitors already compete with Instacart in grocery delivery, so any agreement would likely face close regulatory review, while Amazon keeps pushing faster grocery delivery of its own.

What to watch: whether Instacart, Uber or DoorDash confirm the process or name an adviser, whether a third bidder surfaces, and how far the market prices in a premium before terms exist. Until there is a signed agreement, the roughly $16 billion to $17 billion figure is The Information's arithmetic on a typical premium, not an offer.