The newspapers and other media have proclaimed that Wolt’s successful sale to DoorDash was the country’s largest ever merger deal – bigger than Nokia’s sale to Microsoft! Great!
There were rapturous comments about the huge tax payments to the government’s coffers, and the founders were treated like royalty by the media – “great innovators” and “tech champs”who deserve every penny because of their dedication and hard work.
A couple of Ministers, the Minister of Economic Affairs and the Minister of Finance invited the founders over for a glass of something nice in front of the cameras. It was a happy moment for all concerned. The CEO was even interviewed on the main evening news!
It was a moment of pride for Finns to beat their breasts in front of the rest of the world.
After the dust has settled after the €7 billion bonanza that the owners of Wolt received from DoorDash, your correspondent thought it appropriate to ask a random number of people about what they thought about Wolt.
Most of them thought that is was a convenient service because it is nice to have food delivered from a restaurant some distance away with Wolt’s app. There is no need to drive there and back and wait in the restaurant’s entrance for the package to be ready. It is always nice to share some good food at home without cooking and washing up!
Most people thought that the cost is reasonable and the delivery boys are always polite. There was a consensus that this must be good for restaurants who must see more business that they normally would especially during the colder winter months. Who wants to trudge through snow and ice along dark streets while the next Netflix episode can be enjoyed with the meal in the comfort of home.
They thought that €600 million, the amount of tax to be paid by the Finnish founders, is an important sum of money as is the success of the founders in coming up with such a brilliant business idea.
Many young students at school and university have been thinking about earning some pocket money by working as a delivery boy or girl but few Finns have been seen on the road.
The general feeling is that this is a very good deal for Finland.
