Door Dash: Shares soar on meal delivery offering
Restaurant delivery service worth $60 billion
Shares of Door Dash, the country’ s largest restaurant delivery service, skyrocketed 85% in its initial public offering Wednesday.
The San Francisco company had priced shares at $ 102 Tuesday night, but they began trading Wednesday at $ 182 per share before closing at $ 189.51. DoorDash raised $ 3.4 billion through the offering, fortifying it for what observers expect to be stiff competition against Grubhub and Uber, which recently bought Postmates. The three delivery services are expected to square off for domination of a market where the pandemic has accelerated growth.
DoorDash, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker DASH, had sought a valuation of $ 32 billion from the favored investors selected
by its bankers to buy shares through its offering. ( That valuation was based on how much common stock is currently held by shareholders, not including shares set aside for future compensation.) At the $ 189.51 share price, its market capitalization is now $ 60 billion.
In June, private investors valued DoorDash at about $ 16 billion.
The company had previously set a range of $ 90 to $ 95 for its share price in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
DoorDash reaped huge benefits from the pandemic and shelterinplace orders as homebound consumers used it to get hot food brought to their doorsteps.
“Technology has changed consumer behavior and driven a wave of demand for convenience,” the company said in a prospectus for investors. “Recent events have further accelerated these trends, pulling the future of ecommerce forward for businesses large and small.”
DoorDash’s revenue soared to $ 1.9 billion in the first nine months of 2020, compared with $ 577 million in the same period last year. During those three quarters, it lost $ 149 million, compared to a loss of $ 534 million a year earlier. DoorDash made its only profit during the pandemic — $ 23 million in the second quarter — but then lost $ 43 million the following quarter.
DoorDash was founded in 2013, and said it has 18 million customers, 1 million couriers or “Dashers,” and 390,000 merchants. It operates in the U. S., Canada and Australia.
DoorDash, along with gig companies Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Postmates, notched a victory in California with the passage of Proposition 22 in November, which ensures that their workers will remain independent contractors. All the companies said they relied on the flexibility of this model, while observers pointed out that making the drivers and couriers employees would add hundreds of millions to the company’s expenses.
DoorDash noted in regulatory filings that its industry is fragmented and highly competitive. Consolidation has increased this year. Uber, which operates rival service Uber Eats, just closed on its $ 2.65 billion purchase of Postmates. Grubhub was acquired in June by Just Eat Takeaway of the Netherlands for $ 7.3 billion. DoorDash purchased Square’s Caviar mealdelivery division in 2019 for $ 410 million.
Some analysts are already sour on DoorDash, concerned that it took a pandemic for the company to boost its fortunes — and that its business could crater when the pandemic ends.
DoorDash said as much in its prospectus.
“The circumstances that have accelerated the growth of our business stemming from the effects of the COVID19 pandemic may not continue in the future,” the company wrote.