By Bill Peters
‘We wish there was a way to grow a baby into an adult without investment … but we do not believe this is how life or business works,’ company says
DoorDash’s autonomous delivery vehicle, Dot.
Shares of DoorDash Inc. tumbled in extended trading Wednesday, after the delivery platform said it plans to increase investments in its business next year and that its recent acquisition of Deliveroo would contribute less to profits in 2026 than once anticipated.
DoorDash’s stock (DASH) fell more than 9% after hours. However, the stock is still up around 42% so far this year.
The company said it expects to invest several hundred million dollars more in “new initiatives and platform development” in 2026 than it did last year, as it tries to expand internationally, compete with rivals’ overlapping services and roll out new technology to make orders faster and more precise.
“We wish there was a way to grow a baby into an adult without investment, or to see the baby grow into an adult overnight, but we do not believe this is how life or business works,” the company said in a statement announcing its third-quarter earnings.
DoorDash reported third-quarter revenue of $3.45 billion, up 27% from the same quarter last year and above FactSet analyst forecasts for $3.36 billion. The company earned 55 cents a share during the quarter, below estimates for 68 cents.
DoorDash’s gross order value, or the total dollar value of orders made on the platform, jumped 25% year over year to $25 billion in the third quarter. That was above expectations for $24.53 billion.
For the fourth quarter, DoorDash forecast $28.9 billion to $29.5 billion in gross order value. That outlook was above Wall Street’s forecast for $26.55 billion.
However, DoorDash said its purchase last month of Deliveroo – a London-based delivery company that operates in several nations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East – wouldn’t deliver as much to its adjusted profits as it initially thought.
DoorDash said that due to differences with Deliveroo’s accounting protocols, “we estimate that aligning our accounting treatment and definitions will reduce Deliveroo’s contribution to our reported adjusted Ebitda in 2026 by approximately $32-40 million compared to what weestimate it would have reported prior to our acquisition.” (Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.)
DoorDash, known for its delivery and takeout services for restaurants, has over recent years been trying to deliver more items from grocery stores and other retailers in an effort to become a bigger part of local economies.
In September, the company announced the launch of new features, including a new autonomous delivery robot, called Dot, and services like restaurant reservations. Ethan Feller, a stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research, said that the move showed how DoorDash had helped turned online delivery services into an expectation. He said the expansion risked overlap with other companies – and a “commoditization” of those services – but noted that they could be discarded if they didn’t work.
In September, DoorDash and supermarket chain Kroger Co. (KR) said they would expand their partnership to deliver more groceries to shoppers’ homes. Some analysts said the announcement marked a bigger threat to grocery-delivery platform Instacart (CART).
-Bill Peters
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11-05-25 2028ET
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