Ride hailing giant #Uber made an inauspicious offer to buy #Grubhub just as it lays off thousands of workers and pulls its own #Ubereats out of numerous markets. Grubhub shareholders got an initial pop of 39%. Uber shareholders got squat.
Uber CEO, @DaraKhosrowshahi, sits atop the company after having built nothing of his own other than a friendly relationship with @BarryDiller. His inexperience shows in this deal. Lucky for him, it's not his money. Unlucky for his shareholders though.
Instead of trying to eke out a profit from his own Uber Eats during the period of greatest demand he will likely ever see in his lifetime due to the #covid19 lockdowns, he instead decides to waste billions chasing a company that also is losing piles of money during the period of greatest demand it will ever see. Sooo stupid.
Why would he do this you ask? @TravisKalanik, the founder of Uber, after being exited from his own company (and selling all his shares -- remember @SteveJobs), launched his new startup, #CloudKitchens, to provide "content" to all myriad of delivery service companies out there. Travis Kalanik is a creator, a risk taker, a founder, an entrepreneur. Dara Khosrowshahi wants Travis Kalanik's pair. Instead, he'll just be delivering his meals at a loss.
Khosrowshahi's negotiating "strategy" couldn't have been worse. He has no dominant strategy. He's being pushed around by headlines as bait and he's headed for a fall. He has no self-possession. He wants to be Travis Kalanik, but he's not.