The consolidation of food delivery apps begins with Doordash’s Caviar acquisition

It was only a matter of time before one of the food delivery companies bought another. And yesterday, DoorDash announced it agreed to buy Caviar from Square for a whopping $410 million in cash and stock. It paid just over $44 million for it in 2014.

Why it matters: Square was trying to sell the food delivery company at least as far back as late 2015, as Bloomberg reported shortly after, and a number of companies like Uber, GrubHub and Yelp passed on it. At the time, Square was suggesting a price tag of about $100 million, which companies balked at.

• And, according to a source familiar with DoorDash's thinking, it sees Caviar's partner restaurants and strong markets as additive to its own (meaning, not as much current overlap), making it a valuable asset to acquire, though the apps will remain separate for the time being. Still, whether it's worth the price is up to interpretation.
• Caviar's certainly grown since then, and bolstered its corporate ordering business via its acquisition last year of Zesty.

Bonus: Postmates also took a close look at Caviar as part of the formal process Square recently ran, a source tells Axios, but ultimately didn't make an offer, finding it overpriced. It's unclear who else, if anyone at all, also seriously considered or made bids.