|
Thanks for reading The Briefing, our nightly column where we break down the day’s news. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to our reporting here. Greetings! Food delivery’s great rivalry is heating up. DoorDash and Uber, the two giants of the restaurant-meal delivery scene in the U.S., are now poised to duke it out in Europe. DoorDash unveiled on Tuesday a $3.8 billion proposed takeover of UK-based Deliveroo, its biggest step yet to expand in Europe. Uber, meanwhile, did its best to rain on DoorDash’s parade by simultaneously announcing the $700 million purchase of 85% of a Turkish meal and grocery delivery firm, Trendyol Go. Uber Eats has long had a strong presence in Europe and this deal will only make it stronger. And it’s not just the two U.S. firms fighting it out for the wallets of European consumers. A third and powerful competitor is Just Eat Takeaway, which was recently acquired by Prosus, the European consumer internet firm spun out of South Africa’s Naspers. On the sidelines is Amazon, which owns about 14% of Deliveroo, an investment dating back to 2019, before the UK firm went public. That raises the prospect that Amazon could make its own bid for the firm, as some speculated today could happen (see this MarketWatch piece). If that happens, we’re in for a fun time. (Amazon had nothing to say about that speculation). Assuming DoorDash completes the acquisition, it faces an uphill battle against Uber and Just Eat Takeaway. DoorDash is a relative newcomer to Europe, having been a U.S.-centric firm until its 2022 purchase of Finland-based Wolt. (That acquisition didn’t change the picture too much: Last year, DoorDash derived 88% of its revenue from the U.S., where it is the market leader.) Deliveroo isn't exactly the best house on the block. As of March, it badly trailed UberEats and Just Eat Takeaway in the UK, according to data from market research firm Yipit. Deliveroo also trails Uber Eats in France, although Deliveroo has lately taken the market lead in Italy. On the profit side, Deliveroo also looks to be an underperformer. It generated $115 million in free cash flow on $2.8 billion of revenue last year, a margin of 4%. By comparison, DoorDash’s free cash flow-revenue margin was 16.8% last year. It’s perhaps no coincidence that DoorDash’s offer is pitched at less than half the price at which Deliveroo went public in 2021, the height of the bull market. In other words, DoorDash is buying a fixer-upper. That didn’t take long. Amazon has updated its Kindle app on Apple devices with the addition of an orange “Get book” button prominently displayed under title names, ending the ridiculous situation that has existed for years, where customers couldn’t buy a Kindle book directly on the app. Instead, would-be Kindle book buyers had to go to Amazon’s web site, buy the book there and then have it downloaded. That was thanks to Amazon’s desire to not pay the hefty commission Apple charged for transactions going through apps on its software. But that situation came to an end after last week’s California court ruling against Apple’s app store practices. Apple has appealed the decision but it is complying in the meantime—the judge left it no choice. For the moment, at least, buying an e-book on Kindle has gotten a lot easier. • Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled new PCs from its Surface line that it says can run its AI “Copilot” features without an internet connection. The models are up to 20% cheaper than the last iteration of the AI-specialized Surface devices that Microsoft released last year, in part because they rely on smaller chips to run the models. • The government wants Google to sell two of its advertising technology businesses as a remedy to a Virginia court’s April ruling that Google operates a monopoly in the buying and selling of advertising on independent websites. • Food company Wonder has raised $600 million from investors including NEA and Accel, CEO Marc Lore said on Tuesday, bringing its total money raised to more than $2 billion. • Uber has partnered with Chinese robotaxi company Pony AI to offer autonomously driven rides on Uber’s ride-hailing app. The two will initially launch in a city in the Middle East and have goals to expand to other countries. In the duo’s initial pilot phase, the robotaxis will have safety drivers present in the car. Start your day with Applied AI, the newsletter from The Information that uncovers how leading businesses are leveraging AI to automate tasks across the board. Subscribe now for free to get it delivered straight to your inbox twice a week. | 
