Haverhill Financial Research · Analysis · October 26, 2026
Two sessions, one rumor, 18%
$$CART ( ▼ 2.76% ) closed at $60.91 Monday, up 8.4%, after the Wall Street Journal reported in the afternoon that DoorDash is in advanced talks to acquire Instacart's parent, Maplebear — with a deal possibly finalized as soon as this week if the talks hold. The Journal also reported that Instacart is no longer in active talks with Uber. That stacked on Friday's leg higher, when reports first surfaced that Instacart had hired a bank and held preliminary conversations with both DoorDash and Uber.
Add it up: from $51.68 at Wednesday's close, before any of this leaked, the stock has gained roughly 18% in two sessions. Every dollar of that is deal premium, and every source behind it is anonymous. Neither company has confirmed anything, and no price has been reported for the current talks — Bloomberg's reporting on the DoorDash side put the figure near $17 billion, against Instacart's roughly $13 billion market cap after Friday's pop.
The entire move is attributable to deal reporting, not fundamentals.
Why Instacart might sell now
The irony is that the business has been fine. The second quarter, reported August 6, showed gross transaction value of $10.35 billion, up 14%; revenue of $1.04 billion, up 14%; adjusted EBITDA of $313 million, up 19%; and $480 million of free cash flow, with the high-margin advertising line growing 16%. The stock was up roughly 43% over the past year even before the leak.
But the strategic position has been eroding at the edges. Instacart grows at half DoorDash's pace. Retailers keep building their own digital channels. And in September, Costco — a marquee grocery relationship — handed DoorDash a same-day delivery deal, a reminder that the biggest rival can bundle grocery into a broader delivery platform that Instacart can't match alone. Exploring a sale while the stock is near its highs, rather than after the squeeze tightens, is the rational version of this story.
What we're watching
A confirmed announcement — or silence. The Journal's sourcing says possibly this week. If nothing lands by the November 5 earnings report, coverage expects the stock to drift back toward the pre-leak level around $52.
The price and the structure. Cash versus stock determines how much of the premium holders actually keep, and whether DoorDash shareholders revolt (its own stock fell 6% on the reports).
Antitrust. This combination pairs the largest U.S. food-delivery platform with the largest grocery-delivery platform. Reports of the companies' 2021 conversations suggest antitrust concerns helped kill them then; remedies or divestitures could shrink any deal now.
Q3 on November 5. If the deal breaks, the standalone numbers are suddenly the whole story again.
Sources and disclosures
Deal reporting via the Wall Street Journal (as summarized by StockStory, October 26, 2026), Bloomberg (October 26, 2026), TechCrunch and 24/7 Wall St (October 24, 2026). Quarterly figures from Instacart's second-quarter 2026 results reported August 6, 2026. All deal terms are unconfirmed and based on anonymous sourcing. Report dates can change.
Disclosures. Haverhill Financial Research is a publisher of general financial commentary. This article is not personalized investment advice and does not consider any reader's financial situation; readers should do their own research. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. The author of this post does not hold positions in the companies named. Data as of October 26, 2026.
