Uber Technologies Inc has terminated its deal to acquire Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, after the local antitrust regulator rejected it in December last year.
Uber is required to pay a termination fee that is estimated to be about US$250 million, Delivery Hero said in a statement on Tuesday.
In a separate statement to Bloomberg News, an Uber spokesman reiterated the company’s disappointment about the Taiwanese regulator’s ruling, but said it respects the decision and would not be pursuing an appeal.
Photo: Lam Yik Fei, Bloomberg
“We remain committed to Taiwan and will continue to serve consumers, merchants and delivery partners there in innovative and competitive ways,” the spokesman said.
Uber announced on May 14 last year that it had reached an agreement to acquire Foodpanda delivery service in Taiwan for US$950 million. The company had aimed to complete the all-cash deal by the first half of this year, but the deal was ultimately rejected by the Fair Trade Commission on Dec. 25 last year on the grounds that it would restrict competition.
The acquisition would have been one of Taiwan’s largest outside of the chip industry and given Uber Eats a market share of more than 90 percent in the country, marking a retreat for Delivery Hero from Asia.
Delivery Hero said in the statement that Taiwan remains a key part of its long-term strategy.
The online delivery industry has seen further consolidation globally as demand has failed to return to COVID-19 pandemic-era growth.
London-based Deliveroo PLC on Monday announced that it was closing its Hong Kong business after weak sales and mounting competition from Foodpanda and Keeta, a subsidiary of Chinese food delivery giant Meituan (美團).
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS