Instacart Reportedly Exploring Sale After Talks With DoorDash and Uber; Shares Close Up 9.2%

Instacart is weighing a sale of the company. The grocery delivery firm has hired an investment bank to evaluate its options and has held early talks with rivals DoorDash and Uber, The Information reported Friday, Oct. 23.

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, added that Instacart approached Uber in recent weeks and that Uber has since walked away. Talks with other parties are continuing, Bloomberg reported. Both outlets described the discussions as preliminary and said they may not produce a deal.

Instacart declined to comment. No company has confirmed talks, and no bid has been reported.

What the market did

The first report landed around 3:56 PM ET, in the last minutes of Friday's session. Instacart (CART) closed up $4.76, or 9.21%, at $56.44. That is just under its 52-week high of $57.98. Shares slipped about 0.5% in after-hours trading.

The two named suitors fell. Uber closed down 3.43% at $66.70. DoorDash closed down 3.53% at $179.38.

Instacart's market value was about $12 billion at Thursday's close and about $13.07 billion after Friday's jump. Applying a typical 30% to 40% takeover premium to the pre-report valuation, The Information put a potential price at $16 billion to $17 billion. That is an estimate, not an offer.

A profitable company, not a distressed one

Instacart is not selling from a crisis. Second-quarter revenue rose 14% to $1.043 billion. Net income was $111 million and free cash flow was $480 million. Gross transaction value hit $10.35 billion across 90.3 million orders.

The company works with more than 2,200 retail banners covering nearly 100,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. It also runs an advertising business and sells software and Caper smart carts to retailers.

The weak spot is growth. Revenue rose 11% in both 2024 and 2025, down from 19% in 2023. DoorDash grew revenue 28% in 2025. Uber grew 18%. Amazon and Walmart keep pushing into grocery.

Instacart went public in September 2023 at $30 a share, a valuation of about $10 billion. The current price is roughly 88% above that. It is still far below the $39 billion private valuation the company carried in 2021.

The antitrust problem

DoorDash and Uber both already run grocery delivery. Any deal with either one is a combination of direct competitors, which is exactly what antitrust reviewers look for.

We have been here before. DoorDash discussed buying Instacart in 2021, at a reported $40 billion to $50 billion. Those talks fell apart partly over fears of antitrust approval under the Biden administration.

The current administration looks friendlier. Industry analyst Zak Stambor has said the Trump administration has shown greater willingness to approve deals, possibly on the condition that parts of the business be sold off. A forced divestiture would cut what a buyer is willing to pay for the whole company.

Friendlier is not the same as easy. Direct horizontal mergers between dominant players still draw rigorous scrutiny.

Why Uber may be out

Uber has not said why it reportedly walked away, and neither has Instacart. Uber does have a lot on its plate. It has a Delivery Hero takeover valued at nearly $15 billion, dating to July, and a $2.3 billion purchase of ezCater. Uber also already lets customers order Uber Eats through the Instacart app.

DoorDash has the stronger case on paper. U.S. grocery and retail already drive its order growth, and its $77.72 billion market cap dwarfs Instacart's $13.07 billion. Buying the closest grocery competitor would be affordable. Whether DoorDash wants to fight a regulator over it is a separate question. DoorDash has not commented on the talks.

What comes next

The open questions are concrete. Will DoorDash, the only named suitor still reportedly at the table, make a formal offer? Who are the other parties Bloomberg says Instacart is still talking to? And would any buyer accept the divestitures regulators might demand?

Instacart reports results on November 5, with guidance of $10.30 billion to $10.55 billion in gross transaction value and $320 million to $340 million in adjusted EBITDA. Without a signed agreement or confirming filing by then, the stock could drift back toward its $51.68 close from before the report. Investors will keep deciding whether Friday's 9.2% jump in Instacart shares, and the roughly 3.5% drops at Uber and DoorDash, were the right read of a deal that has not yet been offered.