Before the Blue Apron IPO Date, Will There Be an Acquisition Offer?

According to a March 29 Fortune report, meal delivery service Blue Apron hired investment bankers to launch a public offering in 2017.

Blue Apron IPO date

That means the Blue Apron IPO date could be just months away.

Right now, there are a lot of questions about the Blue Apron IPO. The company still isn't profitable (founded in 2012), and the meal delivery space in the United States is extremely competitive.

But TechCrunch had an interesting theory on why Blue Apron could be rushing an IPO: to attract acquisition offers.

The increasing competition is undoubtedly the biggest challenge for Blue Apron moving forward...

Sun Basket, another meal kit delivery service, just hired investment bankers in mid-March for IPO preparation. Sun Basket touts celebrity Justine Kelly (appeared on "Iron Chef America") as its executive chef and is racing towards a public offering despite being founded just three years ago.

HelloFresh, Plated, Home Chef, and Purple Carrot are also competitors to Blue Apron.

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If Blue Apron ever wants to become profitable, the company may need to sell itself. The best strategy for CEO Matt Salzber and his management team is keeping their positions and having the resources of a larger business behind them.

Two companies that could have interest in Blue Apron are Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP).

Walmart has expanded into online grocery pickup and delivery, which helps it keep up with online retailers. Pepsi has diversified itself with healthy offerings like probiotic drinks and juice smoothies, so Blue Apron would provide an even more diverse revenue source.

But there is one clear front-runner to acquire Blue Apron before the IPO...

After the Blue Apron IPO Date, This Company Could Swoop In

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The most obvious candidate to acquire the meal delivery service is Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN).

There are two reasons why...

First, Amazon has already entered the food delivery business with two partnerships. It announced a partnership with Tyson Foods in May 2016 to launch a recipe delivery service. The ready-to-cook meals include everything from Irish stout beef stew to Korean-style steak tacos.

And unlike Blue Apron, Amazon shoppers aren't locked in to a subscription. That's appealing to customers who may not have time to make the three to four recipes a week that come with a subscription from other services.

Amazon followed that with a partnership with Martha Stewart in mid-March. Martha Stewart's meal kits will be available on Amazon Fresh to customers in Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and New York, according to Forbes.

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So acquiring Blue Apron would fit perfectly with Amazon's expansion into food delivery.

The second reason is simple: Amazon has enough money. With cash and cash equivalents of $19.3 billion at the end of 2016, Amazon could outright buy Blue Apron with its $2 billion valuation.

Now, it's entirely possible Blue Apron is sold after it goes public or isn't even sold at all.

That's why we will keep our readers updated every step of the way before the Blue Apron IPO date with our free IPO Watch Profit Alerts service.

You can find out more about the service below.

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