DoorDash curbs Instacart LinkedIn ties during $17 bn review

DoorDash instructed employees not to make new LinkedIn connections with Instacart staff in an internal Q&A filed with the SEC on Oct. 29, as its $17 billion acquisition awaits approval.

DoorDash’s SEC-filed guidance shows the compliance work around a deal priced at $65 a share, a 26% premium to Instacart’s Oct. 22 closing price, before regulators rule on the transaction.

The Q&A tells employees who ask whether they may connect with Instacart workers on LinkedIn: "Not at this time." The restriction applies to sending or accepting new requests, including where employees already know one another.

Existing LinkedIn connections may remain. If an Instacart employee sends a request, DoorDash gave staff a proposed response: "Congrats! Looking forward to connecting after the deal closes."

Further contact would require approval from DoorDash’s legal team.

The caution reflects rules that apply while two companies remain separate businesses before a merger closes. Antitrust lawyers refer to premature coordination as gun-jumping, meaning parties act as if a transaction is completed before approval.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has warned that merging companies must protect competitively sensitive information, including pricing, costs and strategy, while a transaction is pending. DoorDash and Instacart remain competitors until the deal clears.

Chris Selland, a lecturer at Northeastern University, described the LinkedIn limit in the Times of India story as a guardrail against "poaching and org-chart mapping in case the deal is ultimately blocked." He also said one LinkedIn connection "likely won't blow up a deal on its own."

DoorDash staff may still apply for Instacart jobs through the same route as external candidates. The instruction is narrower than a full communications ban, but it limits informal contact that could create compliance risk.

Atlas360 reported on Oct. 30 that DoorDash agreed to buy Instacart in an all-stock transaction to expand in grocery delivery and compete more directly with Amazon and Walmart. StoneX had kept a Buy rating and $295 target on DoorDash before the announcement, saying Instacart’s enterprise and advertising tools could add capabilities.

Consumer Edge card data put DoorDash at 59% of U.S. delivery app spending, while Instacart’s share fell to 18% from 26% over five years. DoorDash’s purchase price exceeds the $13.7 billion in revenue it reported last year.

The transaction still requires Instacart shareholder approval and antitrust clearance in the U.S., Canada and Israel. Closing is expected at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028.

By late 2027, investors can check whether Instacart shareholders have approved the transaction and whether antitrust reviews in the U.S., Canada and Israel have cleared the deal.

In the first half of 2028, the observable is whether DoorDash and Instacart close the acquisition or keep operating under pre-closing conduct restrictions.

Source: news report, Times of India, Nov. 5, 2026; SEC filing, Oct. 29, 2026