Uber has scrapped its plans to launch food delivery services in five out of the seven countries it targeted for this year’s expansion, which includes Austria, Norway, and Greece, as stated in the report. The remaining two countries were not specified.
Earlier this year, Uber indicated its intention to expand its food delivery operations into seven new European markets: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Romania.
The company anticipated that this expansion would result in an additional $1 billion in gross bookings over the next three years.
However, the San Francisco-based firm is still actively pursuing the acquisition of Delivery Hero, as noted in the FT report.
Delivery Hero announced in May that it had received a €33-per-share ($37.74) offer from Uber, and Reuters reported that the U.S. company raised its stake in the German food delivery firm to nearly 37% from 25% after acquiring shares from fellow stakeholder Aspex Management.
Reuters could not confirm the FT report. Neither Uber nor Delivery Hero responded immediately to requests for comments.
Uber told the FT that it made the decision to pause its expansion efforts following the “huge success” of its launches in Finland and Denmark, with intentions to “focus on maintaining the momentum” in existing markets.
