(Reuters) -Uber has terminated its $950 million bid for Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, the food delivery company said on Tuesday, owing to regulatory hurdles.
Taiwan had in December blocked the deal on anti-competitive concerns. Its Fair Trade Commission argued the buyout of Uber’s main rival, Foodpanda, would increase the combined market share to 90% on the island and could incentivize Uber to raise prices.
Uber said it would not appeal against the decision of Taiwan’s FTC. The U.S. ride-hailing firm will have to pay a deal termination fee of around $250 million.
Both the companies announced the deal in May last year, which included a separate agreement for Uber to buy $300 million worth of newly issued shares of the German food delivery firm.
The termination of the acquisition would not affect the share-purchase agreement, Delivery Hero told Reuters. Food delivery platforms in Asia have rebounded from a post-pandemic slowdown, but the companies are grappling with intense competition and thin margins as they spend heavily on discounts to retain cost-conscious customers.
Uber, which owns food delivery arm Uber Eats, has been looking to tap into the growing quick-commerce business of Foodpanda to expand its reach.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala, Chandni Shah, Pretish M J, Jaspreet Singh and Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Arun Koyyur)
