Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Just Eat Takeaway.com (AMS: TKWY) said it's considering a full or partial sale of Grubhub, less than a year after completing its $7.3 billion purchase of the U.S. food delivery group.
Why it matters: This would be the unwinding of a merger that kicked off a consolidation spree in the food delivery space. After Just Eat first announced its deal for Grubhub, Uber Eats agreed to buy Postmates for $2.65 billion, DoorDash took out Wolt for €7 billion and GoPuff acquired a pair of small British players.
Context: Just Eat has been under pressure from activist investor Lucerne Capital Management, which last week said it will vote against reappointment of the company's CFO and supervisory board.
The bottom line: Just Eat was viewed as one of the only viable suitors for GrubHub, because it didn't have a U.S. presence and some Democratic politicians were raising antitrust alarm bells about Uber. The big question now is if Just Eat can find a taker at almost any price, given those lingering headwinds.