For a city obsessed with food delivery, this was a deal made to order.
Two of the fastest growing food-ordering websites — Seamless and GrubHub — have agreed to merge, creating a combination that can satisfy cravings from salad wraps to sushi rolls.
New York-based Seamless will join forces with Chicago rival GrubHub to offer a wider menu of takeout options and improved technology to deliver food faster.
The combined delivery network will serve some 500 cities and include more than 20,000 local takeout restaurants.
The merged company will boast annual revenue of $100 million on $875 million in food sales. Although sales were not broken down by company, Seamless is believed to be the bigger of the two.
Both sites earn money by taking an estimated 10 percent to 20 percent of the restaurant’s check. The service is free to consumers.
The sites also compete with Delivery.com and ChowNow.com, among others.
While the companies provide essentially the same service — ordering with the click of a mouse button — Seamless carries lengthy customer reviews of restaurants and wait times and has a stronger foothold among corporate customers.
GrubHub, which has gained a bigger following among the college crowd, carries its own customer reviews alongside Yelp’s. Blog reviews suggest GrubHub is more user-friendly than its former chief rival.
For now, the two companies will look unchanged to customers, although that is likely to change when the deal closes.
“The combined organization’s name and marketing brands are expected to be determined following regulatory approval,” the companies said.
GrubHub boss Matt Maloney will become CEO of the newly combined venture, while Seamless CEO Jonathan Zabusky will become president.