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"Seamless and GrubHub, two of the largest online food delivery services in the US, have officially announced &amp;quot;the signing of a definitive agreement&amp;quot; to merge into a combined company.\r\n\r\nThis news, which confirms earlier reports\u00A0that the two companies were in talks, follows more than nine years of heavy competition.\u00A0If the deal goes through, GrubHub founder Matt Maloney\u00A0will take the reins of the new company and current Seamless CEO\u00A0Jonathan Zabusky will serve as president.\r\n\r\nAs for what the new firm will be called, the official release states that &amp;quot;the combined organization's name and marketing brands are expected to be determined following regulatory approval.&amp;quot; Given that &amp;quot;Seamless&amp;quot; \u2014 once called SeamlessWeb during the dot com boom \u2014\u00A0is a confusingly ambiguous name for a site that enables food ordering, it wouldn't surprise us if revisions were made.\r\n\r\nNew stats were also shared in the announcement, including that\u00A0the two companies facilitated approximately\u00A0$875 million in gross food sales to local businesses. This apparently resulted in over\u00A0$100 million in combined revenue.\r\n\r\nIn the announcement, both companies claim that merging will lead to &amp;quot;accelerated innovation&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;enhanced financial flexibility.&amp;quot; The latter statement may be true, but considering the companies' relationship up until now \u2014 they historically fought aggressively for the same customers \u2014 we're betting a sudden decline in competition won't help customers in the long-run. As stated above,\u00A0the merger is still subject to regulatory approval.\r\n\r\nAs for what's left of the competitive food delivery space, companies like Delivery.com, Eat24\u00A0and the decentralized Ordr.in remain.\r\n\r\nImage credit:\u00A0AFP/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/05/20/us-food-delivery-giants-seamless-and-grubhub-officially-announce-merger/>