Business & Markets

NEW YORK — DoorDash agreed Thursday to acquire Instacart in a deal valued at about $17 billion, its largest acquisition to date. Instacart shareholders will receive $65 a share, roughly a 26% premium to the stock's price before takeover speculation surfaced. NBC News reported that DoorDash already handles about two-thirds of U.S. food-delivery volume. The combination would let customers order groceries and other retail items through the DoorDash network. The companies said Instacart users gain access to more than 50,000 additional stores beyond the nearly 100,000 already on its platform. DashPass and Instacart+ members would pay one membership fee instead of two. Industry coverage expects the transaction to draw antitrust attention in the U.S. as delivery platforms consolidate and face slower growth, rising costs and scrutiny of their treatment of independent contractors. Closing terms and timing were not detailed in the coverage reviewed.

ADT agreed Thursday to be acquired by Thrive Holdings in an all-cash transaction valued at $15.3 billion including debt. The deal will take the 152-year-old home-security company off the New York Stock Exchange. Shareholders will receive $10 a share, a premium of about 46% to ADT's unaffected closing price before the deal talk emerged. Reports of negotiations, naming Thrive Capital as the potential buyer, first surfaced Wednesday. Security-industry trade outlet SecurityInfoWatch noted an unusual twist: Apollo Global, which built ADT into its current form, took it public and has since sold out of its equity, is providing all of the financing commitments for the buyout. ADT has gone private before. Regulatory approvals, a shareholder vote and the expected closing date were not detailed in the coverage reviewed.

INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Lilly reported third-quarter revenue of $24.4 billion on Thursday, up 39% from a year earlier and well above Wall Street's roughly $22.6 billion estimate, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mounjaro and Zepbound drove the gain. Lilly earned $7.48 a share on a non-GAAP basis, and $7.22 on a reported basis. The company said about $900 million of revenue came from one-time benefits, mainly $410 million in Jardiance milestones with no more to come, plus favorable rebate adjustments. Lilly raised its full-year revenue guidance to $91 billion to $92 billion, the third increase this year. Its non-GAAP earnings forecast was trimmed to $35 to $36 a share, reflecting acquired research charges. Shares rose in early trading. Lilly also reported positive Phase 3 head-to-head results for retatrutide against Ozempic in type 2 diabetes.

New this week: Semrush has confirmed that Google is returning inaccurate results to some automated ranking tools, calling the problem industry-wide. Ahrefs said on Oct. 22 that 5% to 20% of results were affected, depending on the data provider. A Nozzle analysis of 56.1 million SERPs across 53 countries found 22.6% flagged as poisoned since Sept. 13, against 0.28% in its baseline period. The daily peak was 43.5% on Sept. 30, and about 68% of affected pages recovered within three days. BrightLocal said the issue mainly hit positions below 10, but Semrush, AccuRanker and Nozzle also documented bad first-page data. Semrush and others suggest Google's curbs on large-scale automated collection may be the cause, which Google has not confirmed. Search Engine Roundtable said volatility kept rising through Oct. 29, and Google has announced no ranking update.

Google is giving more businesses access to AI-powered messaging on Business Profiles, according to Search Engine Roundtable and local search consultants who spotted the rollout on Oct. 29. The feature lets customers message a business from Search and Maps through their phone's native texting app. An AI agent answers routine questions, such as menu items or open reservation times, at no cost. It passes questions it cannot answer to the owner, who can take over at any point, and all messages appear in the profile. The agent only works for customers on RCS-capable networks and phones. Others' texts go straight to the owner's phone, and standard rates may apply. An email shared by local search analyst Mike Blumenthal describes the offer as an early-access pilot, and its wording points to restaurants. Google has not announced a broader launch date.

WASHINGTON — The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday that real GDP grew at a 3.4% annual rate in the third quarter, up from 2.2% in the second. Economists had expected about 3.1%. Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, which combine consumer spending and fixed investment, rose 4.9%. A separate Commerce Department report showed the personal consumption expenditures price index up 0.5% in September and 3.6% from a year earlier, from 3.4% in August. Core PCE, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3% on the month and 3.1% on the year, up from 3.0%. Both matched forecasts. CNBC reported that gasoline and other energy goods rose 9.2% in the month. Personal income rose 0.2% and spending 0.5%. The BEA will revise the GDP figure on November 25.

NEW YORK — U.S. government bonds rallied Friday as the slide in AI-linked stocks sent investors toward safer assets. According to a market report citing Reuters, the 10-year Treasury yield fell to about 4.90% and the 30-year to about 5.26%, both one-month lows. The dollar weakened with yields. On Thursday, after the stronger GDP report and September inflation data, the 10-year yield was 4.964% and the 2-year was 4.629%, CNBC reported. Strategists quoted in that coverage said the Fed's new chair, Kevin Warsh, sees the economy as strong, inflation as above target and financial conditions as not restrictive. One of them, a macro head at 21shares, said investors should expect the funds rate to keep rising. Oil is a risk to the rally: Brent is heading for a fourth straight monthly gain.

FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank kept its deposit rate at 2.50% on Thursday, with the main refinancing rate at 2.65% and the marginal lending rate at 2.90%. It said rising energy prices pose upside risks to inflation and downside risks to growth, and it is not pre-committing to a rate path. Euro-zone inflation is 3.8%. President Christine Lagarde said policymakers debated a hike before voting unanimously to hold, and Euronews reported that she will leave in February, months before her term ends. CNBC said markets priced about a 67% chance of a December hike. On Friday the Bank of Japan held at 1.25% in an 8-1 vote, with Hajime Takata seeking 1.5%. It said underlying inflation is consistent with its 2% target. It will also raise annual ETF sales to about 860 billion yen from January 2027, more than double the current pace. The yen rose as much as 0.4% to 157.12 per dollar.

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM Interconnection filed an amended reliability backstop procurement plan with FERC on Thursday. It was the deadline set after regulators suspended the original plan. The grid operator now proposes to open bidding March 1, 2027 and close it March 28. Final targets would be set April 28 and results posted May 10. The price ceiling stays at a $555-per-megawatt-day weighted average. Costs would be allocated by zone according to firm large-load growth, and collateral requirements would be lower. The exemption for municipal utilities and cooperatives would be removed. The 6,831 MW target from the last capacity auction could shrink once PJM updates forecasts and subtracts supply already contracted bilaterally. FERC must still rule. Its September order had set a Feb. 28, 2027 effective date and a hearing. The Energy Department had urged a quick fix so households avoid data-center costs.

LONDON — The UK Budget on Oct. 28 set out an updated 10-year infrastructure pipeline worth more than £750 billion, to be published before the end of 2026. The government estimates delivery will need a workforce above 650,000. It also plans legislation letting Parliament designate and authorize the country's most critical projects, so legal challenges are raised and settled earlier in consenting. It would cut statutory consultation requirements and explore indemnities for developers of critical projects, building on a recommendation about nuclear developers. The approach of the Fingleton Review on delivery costs would extend to other sectors. A review of rail infrastructure costs, chaired by Rachel Skinner, is due within six months. Separately, the Budget added £200 million for Leeds station, bringing investment there to more than £300 million, with upgrades due by 2030.