DoorDash on Wednesday completed its acquisition of Finnish delivery company Wolt, expanding its global footprint from four countries to 27 and marking a big step forward for its international growth plans.
Wolt CEO Miki Kuusi will take charge of the company's operations outside the U.S., which include Australia, Canada and Japan in addition to Wolt's 23 markets.
"DoorDash is at the beginning of a colossal journey, and I'm more excited than ever about what we're building and the potential to help hundreds of millions of people across the globe in our mission to empower local economies," said Tony Xu, DoorDash co-founder and CEO, in a statement.
The all-stock deal was announced in late November and valued at $8.1 billion. But DoorDash's share price has fallen by more than 55% since then, bringing the deal's value closer to $3.5 billion as of Wednesday. DoorDash issued more than 46 million shares to Wolt shareholders in the transaction, according to an SEC filing.
Wolt was founded in 2014 in Helsinki. It offers restaurant pickup or delivery via its own couriers and also covers other categories including cosmetics, groceries and electronics in some markets. As of Q3 2021, it had an annual run rate of more than $2.5 billion and more than 2.5 million monthly active users.
"By joining forces with DoorDash, we have an even greater ability to build delightful products and services across continents," Kuusi said in a statement.
Investors were not as enthused: DoorDash's stock was down more than 6% Wednesday afternoon after the company predicted a slowdown in Wolt's order volumes for the second quarter. In an email to Reuters, Kuusi cited inflation, gas prices and "general uncertainty" for the decline.
DoorDash upgraded its own sales outlook for Q2 to $12.5-$12.7 billion, up from $12.1-$12.5 billion previously, according to an SEC filing associated with the closing. The company credited stronger-than-expected order frequency and average order values for the rosier projection.
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