Uber has completed its acquisition of the alcohol delivery platform Drizly for $1.1 billion, consisting of 18.7 million shares of Uber common stock, plus cash.
Through the acquisition, Drizly becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber. Although Drizly will be featured within the UberEats app, the marketplace will continue as its own separate app and website, according to a press release.
“Uber Eats and Drizly are truly the perfect pairing,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the release. “As we invest in expanded offerings in our delivery business — from grocery and convenience stores to a wide variety of retailers — alcohol remains a key driver of demand from consumers in the U.S.”
Khosrowshahi noted that consumer searches for alcohol items on UberEats have increased 200% in the last year. Uber intends to now direct those consumers to Drizly, and expand the platform’s geographic presence.
Drizly is available in more than 1,600 cities across 33 U.S. states, as well as Canada.
“We’ve spent the last few years building the infrastructure to bring this category online,” Drizly CEO Cory Rellas said in the release. “With [Uber’s] platform, technology, scale, and expertise, we will accelerate our mission of becoming the go to place for alcohol — anytime, anywhere, for any occasion.”
Plans for the acquisition were previously announced in February. In August, The Information reported that the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) New York office was investigating the acquisition, along with Uber’s partnership with the e-commerce convenience marketplace Gopuff. The two separate, still-ongoing investigations should determine if the deals create an anti-competitive environment, and may lead to a settlement or future lawsuits.