Amazon gets approval for UK food delivery investment as pandemic hammers industry
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Amazon will provisionally be allowed to invest in UK-based food delivery startup Deliveroo, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced today. Deliveroo originally announced the $575 million funding round lead by Amazon last May, but the CMA was initially worried that the deal could be bad for competition. Now, however, the authority thinks the investment will be better for competition overall.
The reason for this is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hammered Deliveroo’s business by forcing the restaurants for which it delivers to close. The delivery company says that it will require “significant additional funding” to avoid having to exit the market completely. The CMA believes that this investment can “only...