NEW YORK — Rivals Seamless and GrubHub said Friday that they have completed their combination, creating an online takeout company covering about 25,000 restaurants in 500 cities.
The new company will operate under the name GrubHub Seamless, but both brands and their respective websites will continue to operate separately, company spokeswoman Allie Mack said.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal had been announced in May.
GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney becomes CEO of the combined company, while Seamless CEO Jonathan Zabusky will serve as president. Both New York-based Seamless and Chicago-based GrubHub will have significant representation on the new company's executive team and board.
"We are excited to take our collective experience and move forward together to set a new industry standard for restaurants, diners and corporate clients," Maloney, who co-founded GrubHub in 2004, said in a statement.
Online takeout ordering services work by contracting with restaurants, mostly in large metropolitan areas, to list themselves on the websites. Diners can search the menus, along with reviews posted by diners, on their computer or smartphone to find the food they want and then order and pay online.
The services appeal to diners by eliminating the need for a kitchen drawer of takeout menus, while also helping them discover new pickup and delivery options in their neighborhoods. Meanwhile, restaurants can benefit from new business and don't have to deal with as many phone orders, which can be labor intensive and prone to error.
Restaurants also don't have to commit to offering online ordering through just one service. As a result many already offer online ordering through both GrubHub and Seamless, along with other competitors such as Delivery.com and Eat24.com.