DoorDash's deal to buy Instacart coming as early as Thursday morning, sources tell CNBC

MarketsPublished Wed, Oct 28 20264:45 PM EDTUpdated 3 Min AgoKey PointsDoorDash's bid to buy Instacart could be announced as early as Thursday morning, CNBC has learned. Speculation of a deal has swirled since last week, and several outlets reported the acquisition could value Instacart at roughly $17 billion. DoorDash's bid to buy Instacart could be announced as soon as Thursday morning, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.Speculation of a deal has swirled since last week, when The Information reported Instacart was exploring a sale and had held talks with companies including Uber and DoorDash. On Monday, several outlets reported DoorDash was in advanced discussions to acquire Instacart and that the deal could value Instacart at about $17 billion. Instacart's stock popped about 4% in extended trading on Wednesday, while DoorDash shares fell less than 1%. Acquiring Instacart would give DoorDash a bigger presence in online grocery delivery. DoorDash got its start in food delivery, and since then it has added more retailers to its marketplace, such as Sephora, Macy's, Staples and Anthropologie. Instacart, which went public in 2023, was one of the biggest beneficiaries of a pandemic-driven surge in grocery delivery services, but it has struggled to maintain that momentum amid stiffer competition from companies like Amazon and Walmart. After slowing its brick-and-mortar grocery effort, Amazon has doubled down on its online grocery business and leveraged its vast fulfillment footprint to speed up deliveries of household essentials, pantry staples and perishables.Both Amazon and Walmart have pushed further into same- and next-day delivery, which poses a threat to Instacart's on-demand delivery model. Analysts have noted that a potential combination of Instacart and DoorDash could attract antitrust scrutiny given the companies' market overlap. "3P delivery platforms remain a minority of total grocery consumption, but slicing and dicing the online market more narrowly or from a perspective of the grocers as enterprise customers can make approvals more challenging," Wedbush analysts wrote in a Monday research note. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.