// STARTUP COMPARISON
Delivery Hero Europe Exit vs Social Point
Delivery Hero Europe Exit failed in 2022 due to Competition. Social Point failed in 2017 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.
| METRIC | 🔥 Delivery Hero Europe Exit | 🔥 Social Point |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Marketplace | Gaming |
| Country | Germany | Spain |
| Founded | 2011 | 2008 |
| Died | 2022 | 2017 |
| Raised | €6B+ | Bootstrapped |
| Peak | €14B valuation (2021) | $250M acquisition |
| Primary Cause | Competition | Acquisition Gone Wrong |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 Delivery Hero Europe Exit
Competition
Delivery Hero exited Germany (its home market) in 2018 by selling Lieferheld, Pizza.de, and foodora to Takeaway.com for €930M — reasoning it could not compete with Deliveroo and Uber Eats in Germany while expanding globally. In 2022, it also sold its Foodpanda operations in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria) to Bolt Food for €200M. These exits followed Delivery Hero spending €3B+ on Gorillas investment and write-downs, Glovo grocery write-downs, and a share price that fell 85% from peak. The company that built the world's food delivery infrastructure retreated to Asia.
// LESSON
Winning the global food delivery war by exiting your home market is an oxymoron. Germany was Delivery Hero's most efficient market — the one where they had density, brand, and profitability. Selling it to fund global expansion meant funding expansion from a permanently weaker position.
Winning the global food delivery war by exiting your home market is an oxymoron. Germany was Delivery Hero's most efficient market — the one where they had density, brand, and profitability. Selling it to fund global expansion meant funding expansion from a permanently weaker position.
🔥 Social Point
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Social Point built Dragon City and Monster Legends, reaching 100M monthly active users. Take-Two Interactive acquired them for $250M in 2017. Post-acquisition integration clashes, loss of autonomy, and departure of founding team led to creative stagnation. By 2020 both flagship games had declined significantly and the studio identity was absorbed into the parent company.
// LESSON
A mobile gaming acquisition that removes the founding team removes the only asset that created the value. Earnout structures and creative autonomy clauses are not optional — they are the acquisition.
A mobile gaming acquisition that removes the founding team removes the only asset that created the value. Earnout structures and creative autonomy clauses are not optional — they are the acquisition.
// EXPLORE FURTHER