Ocado shares rose on speculation that the online grocer could be the subject of acquisition talks from Amazon or another US technology company.
Ocado and Amazon declined to comment on the Times report, which sent shares of the troubled company soaring more than 40% at one point.
They settled more than 30%.
Ocado has been a market darling during the pandemic, ranking as the UK’s most valuable retailer, although it accounted for a fraction of purchases.
But opinions of the company have soured sharply as it struggles with the return of in-store shopping and price hikes.
Its share price is down about 80% from its peak in 2020.
Analysts said the decline could make it an attractive potential takeover target.
Under UK takeover rules, companies seriously exploring such moves are required to disclose their interest to investors.
Amazon has been pushing to expand its grocery business for years, buying Whole Foods and trying convenience stores. In the UK, it owns 16% of Deliveroo, a deal that narrowly escaped opposition from the UK’s competition authority.
In his annual letter to investors in April, CEO Andy Jassy called the grocery “a great growth opportunity” but said the company was still looking for the right model. He argued that the company would need a “collective physical offering” in order to become the major player it aspires to be.
Ocado was founded by three Goldman Sachs bankers in 2000, and began trading as a trading company in partnership with Waitrose in 2002.
Today, the retail arm, a partnership with Marks & Spencer, is just shy of 1 million active customers (as of the end of February), claiming around 12% of the UK’s online grocery market.
In addition to delivery in the UK, the company has sold its technology to grocery stores around the world, including Krogers in the US, Casino in France, and Aeon in Japan.
But it reported a huge pre-tax loss of £500m for 2022. At the time, it said the downturn was the result of a “cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by the impact of a return to more normal customer behavior than the lockdown restrictions in the previous year”. .