BlinkIt Served Piping Hot Misery to Zomato In 10 Minutes, Tweets Ashneer Grover Food delivery app Zomato's stock plummeted to a record low of INR 41.60 apiece on Tuesday morning
By Soumya Duggal •
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Restaurant aggregator Zomato's stock took over a 14 per cent plunge on Monday, hitting an all-time low of INR 43.5 a piece on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The record drop, which wiped out over INR 89,000 crores, came after the expiration of the mandatory one-year lock-in period for pre-IPO investors. The stock fell further to INR 41.60 on Tuesday.
Many reactions followed the development on Twitter: dismayed shareholders cautioned others from investing in Zomato; analysts expected the app's shares to witness selloff pressure; and Bharatpe founder and former MD Ashneer Grover dished out yet another one of his acerbic hot takes.
"On the stock market - @letsblinkit served piping hot misery to @zomato in 10 minutes!" Grover tweeted, alluding to Zomato's recent acquisition of BlinkIt for INR 4,447 crore. He added that had the food delivery company merged with Swiggy instead of BlinkIt, its share would now be worth ten times more in value at INR 450 per piece. Interestingly, the Shark Tank India judge served as the chief financial officer at Grofers (now BlinkIt) from March 2015 to August 2017.
Furthermore, a couple of months back, Grover had humorously recommended that investors buy Zomato shares despite the fact that they had been free-falling for months by then. "It's all about perspective. If you were a Zomato employee and exercised your ESOP (employee stock ownership) at Rs 140 or higher price post IPO, you probably paid more cost per share as Income Tax, than what you can buy it today from market freely. At Rs 56 per share price, markets are giving everyone ESOPs," he tweeted in May.
In response to Grover's latest tweet taking a jibe at Zomato's plummeting shares, users shared their own various takes. "It's classic example of how founders destroy value cuz they can't digest the instant fame and success they have recd without comparative efforts . Buying blinkit which had no value ,not paying attention to what investor sentiment suggest has eroded trust in @zomato for long times," wrote one user.
Another tweeted, "Both companies (Zomato and BlinkIt) r going to shut down. It's time. Once swiggy ipo is over, food delivery business will be in complete new space."
Zomato's market debut in July 2021 was nothing short of stellar, with its initial public offering being successfully subscribed 38.25 times.
