Ashneer Grover blames Zomato's Blinkit acquisition for its share price fall

Former BharatPe Co-founder and managing director Ashneer Grover said on Tuesday that Zomato should have acquired its arch rival Swiggy than 10-minute grocery platform Blinkit to avoid the mayhem it is experiencing on Dalal Street.

Zomato's share price tanked over 11 per cent on Monday and more than 7 per cent to hit an all-time low of Rs 43.05 on Tuesday.

According to Grover, merging Swiggy would have seen Deepinder Goyal-led Zomato to reach Rs 450 a share.

"On the stock market - letsblinkit served piping hot misery to zomato in 10 minutes! Yeh hi agar Swiggy ko merge kar liya hota to Rs 450 ka stock hota!" (Had Zomato merged with Swiggy, its stock price would have been Rs 450) tweeted Grover.

Zomato acquired Blinkit for about $568 million, saying quick commerce is a natural extension of its food delivery business.

The shares of the food delivery platform touched a new low of Rs 43.05 on Tuesday, wiping out more than Rs 89,000 crore.

In May, Grover had said that buying Zomato shares, even when it had been falling for months, wouldn't be a bad idea.

"It's all about perspective. If you were a Zomato employee and exercised your ESOP (employee stock ownership) at Rs 140 or higher post IPO, you probably paid more cost per share as Income Tax, than what you can buy today from the market freely. At Rs 56 per share price, markets are giving everyone ESOPs," he had tweeted.

Grover, along with his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, has incorporated a new company called 'Third Unicorn Private Limited' that has both husband and wife as directors, according to the data available on Tofler.

Third Unicorn has an authorised share capital of Rs 20 lakh and a total paid-up capital of Rs 10 lakh.

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