Lake Charles Based Waitr App Purchased by Tilman Fertitta for $300 Million
According to Bloomberg, an announcement was made on Wednesday, May 16, that food- delivery service Waitr has been purchased for $300 million by Landry's Inc. (Golden Nugget) and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta.
The Lake Charles-based company was started in late 2013 by Chris Meaux after he pitched the idea to the Southwest Louisiana Seed Center Business Incubator, said KPLC.
Fertitta and his best friend Richard Handler formed Lancadia in 2016 where they raised $300 million to start a company together, and finally found what they were looking for in Waitr.
Lancadia Holdings Inc. will eventually change to Waitr Holdings, with at least $50 million going to backers of the food-delivery service. The rest will reportedly be paid in stocks so the company can go public.
Don't fret, nothing drastic will change within the company structure, as Meaux will continue as Chief Executive. Fertitta will reportedly act as CEO of Lancadia and Handler will serve as president.
Waitr was slightly ahead of the game with few competitors when they launched, but since has competitors like Uber Eats, and DoorDash. The company has over 5,000 restaurants paying between $1,200 and $2,000 upfront to sell through the app, with their focus on midsize cities in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and several other southern states. I'm sure that will grow across the nation, and maybe even other parts of the world at some point.
I assure you, I'll be adding stock in Waitr to my portfolio as soon as it hits the NASDAQ.
Back in 2017 Fertitta also purchased the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion, so it's safe to say money isn't a thing to the Landry's Inc. owner.
[Source: Bloomberg]