Tech

Uber to acquire alcohol delivery startup Drizly for $1.1 billion

Uber headquarters
Eric Risberg/Associated Press
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Uber will acquire the alcohol delivery company Drizly for $1.1 billion in both stock and cash, the companies announced in a press release Tuesday.

Drizly will eventually integrate with the company's Uber Eats app, but it will also maintain its own Drizly app, per the release. Drizly has been called the "Uber for alcohol delivery."

"By bringing Drizly into the Uber family, we can accelerate that trajectory by exposing Drizly to the Uber audience and expanding its geographic presence into our global footprint in the years ahead," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the press release.

The deal is expected to finalize by this summer, with more than 90% of the sum being paid to Drizly stockholders in the form of Uber common stock. The deal is "subject to regulatory approval," per the release. 

Drizly did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Uber declined to comment further beyond the press release.

The acquisition is another foray on Uber's part into delivery apps — its Uber Eats service competes with the likes of DoorDash and Seamless. It shelled out $2.6 billion in an all-stock deal for food-delivery startup Postmates last July.

Read more: As delivery exploded during the pandemic, these 5 startups offered restaurants alternatives to DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub and their hefty fees

Uber was reportedly in talks to buy Grubhub for $7.3 billion in June 2020 but lost to the European food-delivery company Just Eat Takeaway. Uber backed away from the deal over antitrust concerns, according to a CNBC report from June.

US officials had spoken out against any such deal between Uber and Grubhub in May of last year, with some Democratic lawmakers even writing a letter advocating against it. An Uber merger with Grubhub would have given the rideshare giant control of about half of the overall food delivery market, per data from the research firm Edison Trends.

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Katie is a tech and crypto reporter based in Austin, Texas. She joined Insider in 2018 and focuses heavily on NFTs, blockchain technology, major crypto players, and the booming Web3 space. She has also covered the many happenings in the tech industry, from content moderation and data privacy to antitrust issues and regulation.  Katie graduated from Texas A&M University in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She began her time at Insider in the company's San Francisco office before moving home to Texas in 2021. You can find her paddleboarding most Saturdays. Reach her at kcanales@bjinnox.com, or follow her on Twitter @KatieCanales1.