Following the news that Deliveroo has agreed to a £2.9bn takeover by US giant DoorDash, and have agreed a 180p per share offer which represents a 44% premium on recent prices.
It’s still less than half the 390p Deliveroo floated at in 2021. For many, this is yet another worrying signal of the UK losing its brightest tech stars to overseas buyers, and of a public market that’s failing to support homegrown innovation.
Deliveroo being snapped up by DoorDash is yet another painful example of a British success story being bought out by a US giant, and a clear signal that the UK is losing its grip on scaling and retaining its own tech champions.
While a 44% premium on the current share price might grab headlines, let’s not forget Deliveroo floated at 390p back in 2021. Today’s offer, less than half that, shows how little confidence there is in the UK market to nurture and back our homegrown innovators in the long term.
If we’re serious about keeping our best businesses onshore, the Government needs to act fast. That means meaningful reform to Capital Gains Tax to reward risk-taking, not punish it. We need to supercharge EMI and EIS to stay competitive globally and make the London Stock Exchange attractive again with dual-class share structures and lower barriers to listing.
A UK Sovereign Growth Fund could help protect strategically important firms while fixing the talent pipeline, through global founder visas, IR35 reform, and better tech education, which will make us a magnet for entrepreneurial talent.
Most of all, we need consistency. Policy U-turns and regulatory uncertainty only drive founders away. If we want the UK to be more than a stepping stone to New York or the NASDAQ, then founders need reasons to stay, not excuses to leave.
