Prosus deployed approximately $8.5 billion on acquisitions over the past year, a sum that highlights the unrestricted movement of corporate capital across Europe even as human beings face increasingly militarized borders. This massive investment underscores a fundamental imbalance: capital flows freely, while the workers often essential to such enterprises are criminalised for crossing the same lines.
The company's strategy involves using Just Eat Takeaway.com as the foundation for a new European business. This platform aims to combine food delivery, groceries, and fintech services. Such an expansion, consolidating market power, relies heavily on a flexible, often precarious, workforce. Many of these workers are migrants, navigating Europe's harsh border regime and the precariousness it imposes.
Prosus stated that this deal spree forms part of its broader push to build a comprehensive platform around Just Eat Takeaway.com. The company has spent roughly $8.5 billion on acquisitions in the last year alone. This mirrors Prosus's established approach in Latin America, where similar platforms have been developed, often leveraging low-wage labour.
Capital's Free Movement, Human Stagnation
The $8.5 billion spent by Prosus on acquisitions over the past year represents a significant financial deployment. This capital moves without impediment, crossing national boundaries and regulatory frameworks with ease. No biometric checks, no detention centres, no pushbacks impede its journey. The EU's internal market facilitates this seamless transfer of wealth, a privilege not extended to human beings.
This unfettered financial mobility stands in stark contrast to the daily reality for millions of people seeking safety or opportunity in Europe. While corporate entities like Prosus expand their reach and consolidate markets, the European Union continues to fortify its external borders. The very notion of "free movement" within the Schengen area is reserved for capital and certain citizens, not for those fleeing conflict or poverty. This double standard is a core feature of Fortress Europe.
The Invisible Workforce of the Gig Economy
The expansion of platforms combining food delivery and groceries, like the one Prosus envisions, often depends on a vast network of gig workers. Many of these individuals are migrants, frequently undocumented or in precarious legal situations, who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. They are the human infrastructure that allows capital to generate profit, yet their own movement is systematically criminalised. The EU's new Migration Pact, with its outsourcing of asylum screening and increased surveillance, only tightens the grip on these essential workers.
The strategy in Europe, mirroring Prosus's approach in Latin America, demonstrates a global pattern of corporate expansion. This pattern prioritises profit generation through the fluid deployment of capital, while simultaneously contributing to the conditions that create a desperate, exploitable workforce. The ease with which $8.5 billion can be spent on corporate takeovers stands as a stark indictment of a system that denies basic human rights and freedom of movement to those who need it most. The real crisis is not the movement of people, but the racist response to it, juxtaposed against the celebrated freedom of capital. This economic model, where capital is welcomed and workers are criminalised, defines Europe's political order.