The acquisition of Taiwan’s foodpanda was rejected! Grab shouts disappointment, latest response exposed

Taiwan’s foodpanda sells again! Southeast Asia's food delivery giant Grab originally planned to acquire Taiwan's foodpanda for US$600 million. The Fair Council officially announced today (21st) that it would ban the merger, causing the acquisition to fall through. Grab also responded vocally, admitting that it was "disappointed" with the results.

The key reason for the Fair Council's rejection is that the relationship between Grab and Uber is too close, which may affect fair competition in Taiwan's food delivery market.

The Fair Association pointed out that Taiwan’s food delivery market is currently dominated by two major platforms, foodpanda and Uber Eats, forming a “dual-occupancy” situation. If the acquisition is successfully completed, Grab will replace foodpanda and become Uber Eats' main competitor in Taiwan.

However, Uber, the parent company of UberEats, actually holds about 13.1% of Grab’s shares. Uber’s CEO has also served as a director of Grab for a long time in the past, and the two parties have more business cooperation relationships in other markets. The Fair Council believes that these shareholdings, personnel and cooperative relationships may reduce the willingness of Grab and Uber Eats to actively compete in the Taiwan market in the future, so it decided to prohibit the combination.

Faced with the rejection of the acquisition, a Grab spokesperson said: "We are aware of the decision made today by the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission regarding Grab's proposed acquisition of foodpanda's Taiwan business. We are disappointed with this outcome because we are unable to bring innovative services, reasonable revenue opportunities, and optimized service standards to Taiwanese consumers, delivery people, and merchants as planned."

Grab also emphasized that Grab's core business in Southeast Asia is still developing strongly and will continue to invest funds and resources in the future to promote established growth plans.

It is worth mentioning that this is the second time that Taiwan’s foodpanda has hit a sales wall. As early as May 2024, Uber announced that it would acquire Taiwan's foodpanda for US$950 million, but it was rejected by the Fair Council in December of the same year. At that time, the Fair Association believed that the market share of the two major platforms would exceed 90% after the merger, which would not only weaken market competition, but also increase the incentives for the platforms to increase delivery fees and increase restaurant commissions, so the combination was prohibited. Now that Grab has taken over the acquisition, it still failed to pass the fair review, and the next move of Taiwan foodpanda has once again attracted attention.