Food Delivery Service Waitr Starts Publicly Trading
Skift Take
Waitr didn't go through an initial public offering because of the nature of its acquisition that was announced earlier this year, but Waitr shares are now up for grabs and it'll report quarterly earnings alongside the one other publicly traded food delivery service in the space, Grubhub.
Waitr, a relatively small player in the third-party delivery space in terms of market coverage and active diners on the platform, started trading publicly today.
It’s the second food delivery service to become a public company after Grubhub, which launched an initial public offering in 2014 and is currently trading at $90.78 per share. In its first 30 minutes of trading, Waitr rose by .75%.
Waitr didn't go public through the traditional route of an IPO, however. The delivery service entered a merger agreement earlier this year with billionaire hospitality giant Tilman Fertitta, who owns a variety of restaurant chains, casinos, and hotels across the U.S., as well as the Houston Rockets. He acquired Waitr for $308 million in a combination of cash and stock valued at $10 per share.
Fertitta facilitated the acquisition through his publicly traded blank check company, Landcadia Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company that was formed with the intent to make a deal like this in the restaurant space. Since Landcadia was already p
