DoorDash Shares Gain After Announcement to Acquire Wolt for $8.1B

Shares of DoorDash were heading higher this week after Wall Street learned that the company will be acquiring international delivery platform Wolt for $8.1 billion in an all-stock deal.

Wolt, a food delivery platform, has recently expanded into groceries and retail. The Finland-based company currently has about 4,000 employees and operates in 23 countries.

The move to acquire Wolt, who said earlier this year that it had surpassed 10 million users, is an effort to accelerate DoorDash’s international growth. Shares of DoorDash popped more than 24% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

Upon closing, Wolt founder and CEO Miki Kuusi will run DoorDash International. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022.

Wall Street learned of the planned Wolt acquisition in DoorDash’s third quarter financial report.

For the third quarter the company reported a loss per share of 30 cents. This is compared to the loss of 26 cents that was expected per Refinitiv. Revenue at $1.28 billion was higher than the $1.18 billion expected.

The company reported a net loss of $101 million. That’s more than double its loss of $43 million in the same quarter of 2020.

DoorDash said the number of new consumers acquired in the quarter was down compared to peak levels in 2020 but still remains “well above” levels in 2019 and prior years, it added. Total orders were up 47% to 347 million.

Marketplace gross order value jumped 44% to $10.4 billion. DoorDash said it expects a range of $10.3 billion to $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

The company also reported 500,000 partner merchants, saying it continues to add at a “pace that is faster than pre-pandemic levels.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.