Just Eat shareholders were denied a three-way bidding war for the takeaway app because Uber took fright at the increased aggression of Britain’s competition watchdog, The Telegraph can reveal. Uber was gearing up to gatecrash the takeover battle between the Dutch operators Takeaway.com and Prosus with an offer of its own, senior City sources said. A three-way tussle could have driven the final price higher than the £6bn agreed by Takeaway.com offer approved by Just Eat shareholders last month. However, Uber abandoned the discussions when the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) surprised bankers by opening an investigation into a planned investment by Amazon in Deliveroo. The investigation, first mooted in June and then formally launched in October, has cast doubt over the expansion of US tech giants. Amazon is the lead investor in an attempted $575m (£442m) funding round for Deliveroo. The CMA has said the deal could lead to a takeover and prevent consumers benefitting from potential competition if Amazon was forced to start from scratch, and is now conducting an in-depth “phase two” probe. Uber already runs its own food delivery service, Uber Eats, which competes with Deliveroo and Just Eat. Executives at the leading minicab app hoped to snatch Just Eat from under the noses of Prosus and Takeaway.com late in the day. They backed out as watchdogs moved in, however. Documents published by the CMA in relation to the Deliveroo investigation have signalled that watchdogs view the market as already “highly concentrated”. The regulator has now opened an investigation into whether Takeaway.com might have entered the UK market independently if it had not bought Just Eat. Uber declined to comment.