The stock price tells the real story. In 2021, Delivery Hero's stock was worth €177 per share. Today it is worth €23.52. The company lost 87 percent of its value. Investors who believed in Östberg's vision lost enormous amounts of money.
The founder of Delivery Hero is stepping down. Niklas Östberg announced on Tuesday that he will leave as CEO by March 31, 2027. He did not want to leave, an investor named Aspex Management pushed him out.
Here is what happened. Aspex is an investment firm from Hong Kong that owns a piece of Delivery Hero. The firm spent eight weeks sending complaints to Östberg and the board. They said Delivery Hero operates in more countries than any competitor but makes less profit than all of them. That made no sense to Aspex. How can you be in more markets but earn less money?
On Monday, Aspex bought more shares of the company. They now own 15 percent of Delivery Hero. That is enough to force change. On Tuesday, Östberg announced he was stepping down. He said it was "the right moment" to hand over control. What he actually meant is that the board decided his time was up.
The stock price tells the real story. In 2021, Delivery Hero's stock was worth €177 per share. Today it is worth €23.52. The company lost 87 percent of its value. Investors who believed in Östberg's vision lost enormous amounts of money. He promised that operating in many countries would create a successful company. It did not. Östberg's idea was simple. Buy food delivery companies across Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Build one giant global platform. Eventually it would make money. Instead, the company has been losing money for years. The only place where Delivery Hero actually makes money is in the Middle East, specifically through a platform called Talabat.
Talabat is the success story as it generates cash. It is profitable. It works. Everything else in Delivery Hero loses money. But Talabat is also valuable. If an investor wanted to get cash from Delivery Hero, they would sell Talabat. That is the worry now.
In Saudi Arabia, Delivery Hero owns HungerStation, a quick delivery service for groceries. It paid $298 million for it in 2023. The idea was good at the time. Quick delivery was supposed to be the next big thing. But quick delivery companies are now collapsing across Saudi Arabia. Nana is struggling. Careem left the market. Rabbit disappeared. HungerStation survives but barely. The Saudi bet did not work out.
So what Östberg built in 15 years produces this. One region that makes money. One region that loses money. Many other countries that all lose money. The founder promised scale would solve everything. It did not. Aspex now owns enough of the company to control what happens next. The board will search for a new CEO by the end of this year. Östberg will stay until March 2027 while the company decides which countries to leave, which companies to sell, and what the business looks like after the founder is gone.
By March 2027, Delivery Hero will be a smaller company. The new CEO will inherit a different business. The founder who built it will be gone. Östberg promised global dominance through expansion. What he delivered was losses at a massive scale. An investor with enough money to buy control has now taken over and the founder is learning what happens when the market loses patience with you.
