DoorDash agrees to buy Instacart for $65.00 per share
Instacart holders may take cash, DoorDash stock or a mix, with at least 75 per cent of the total paid in cash.
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UpdateThursday, October 29, 2026 at 8:36 AM ET
Instacart reported third-quarter earnings of $0.60 a share under US accounting rules, on revenue of $1.09 billion, in line with the figure that had been expected. Chris Rogers, the chief executive, said it was the best quarter the company has posted since it became a public company. Gross transaction value, the total value of orders placed through the app, rose 15 per cent from a year earlier. Advertising and other revenue rose 23 per cent. Instacart bought back $230 million of its shares in the quarter and ended it with $1 billion in cash and similar assets. It has suspended its financial guidance, withdrawn its long-term guidance and cancelled its earnings call while the deal is pending.
DoorDash has agreed to acquire Instacart, which operates under the legal name Maplebear, for $65.00 per share. The deal values the company's equity at approximately $17 billion. The agreement is dated October 28, 2026, and Instacart's board has unanimously approved it.
Instacart stockholders can choose cash, DoorDash stock or a mix of the two. The total consideration must be at least 75 per cent cash. DoorDash stock is capped at 25 per cent of the total, subject to proration.
Instacart would owe a termination fee of $650 million in certain circumstances. DoorDash would owe $1.25 billion in certain terminations tied to regulatory failure.
The signed terms put into binding form much of what the market had already priced in, so the new detail is mainly legal and financial. The two fees set the cost of a failed deal for each side, and the larger one falls on DoorDash, which points to regulatory approval as the main risk. Both companies have named the antitrust review as the factor that will decide timing. The closing window runs from late 2027 to the first half of 2028. Only at that point would Instacart's enterprise and advertising units combine with DoorDash's network.
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