DoorDash has announced an agreement to acquire Instacart, according to a LinkedIn post that references the deal. The transaction amount was not disclosed in the source.
The post frames the deal as part of a broader pattern of corporate consolidation. It says antitrust laws are meant to prevent corporations from concentrating so much power that competition becomes meaningless, but that industry after industry has become dominated by a handful of corporate giants while the government agencies responsible for protecting consumers and competition have too often failed to intervene.
The author writes that a corporate philosophy has been normalized in which maximizing shareholder returns takes precedence over employees, customers and communities, and that mergers are celebrated for their "efficiencies," which the post says too often translate into eliminated positions, reduced competition and greater corporate leverage.
Regarding this deal specifically, the post asks whether the DOJ and FTC will meaningfully scrutinize it or whether it will be another consolidation waved through. It says that if the deal goes through, layoffs should not be surprising when announced as "operational synergies." The author also asks why the government is not doing more to protect workers, consumers and genuine competition instead of allowing corporate power to become increasingly concentrated in fewer hands.
The source does not include the terms of the transaction, a timeline, or comment from either company.