Is Albertsons looking to add a natural foods store to its grocery empire? The chain acquired Safeway in 2015 and remains hungry for expansion. Does it want free-range, organic expansion, and does it make sense to acquire a natural foods chain when “natural” and organic food is now available everywhere? [More]
mergers & acquisitions
British American Tobacco Offers $47B For Reynolds American
By 10.21.16
More than a decade after British American Tobacco bought a roughly 42% stake in tobacco biggie R.J. Reynolds American, the London-based company is back for the rest, offering $47 billion to create the world’s largest tobacco company. [More]
Walgreens-Rite Aid Merger Still On Track, CEO Says Only 500 Stores Would Close
By 7.6.16
Walgreens and Rite Aid are the biggest and third-biggest pharmacy drugstore in this country, and they want to join forces to become a pharma-Voltron. The companies are waiting for regulatory approval, but the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance told shareholders today that the deal will probably go through by the end of 2016, and that it will result in the closing of only about 500 stores. [More]
Amazon Executive: Actually, We Don’t Have Any Big Corporate Office Supply Contracts Yet
By 3.23.16
Staples and Office Depot want to pledge their future and their fortunes together in corporate matrimony, and the Federal Trade Commission objects to their union. The companies and the Federal Trade Commission are making their cases before a federal judge, and the key question in this merger seems to be whether large corporations plan to buy their office supplies from Amazon in the future. An Amazon executive testified that they haven’t signed any major companies, and aren’t really pursuing big corporate contracts. Yet. [More]
Sysco Drops Bid To Buy U.S. Foods, Plan To Create Foodservice Supply Voltron
By 6.29.15
After months of battling with federal regulators – including contentious meetings, a lawsuit and a federal injunction – food distributor Sysco has dropped its plan to merge with rival U.S. Foods. [More]
Federal Judge Blocks Formation Of Foodservice Supply Voltron
By 6.23.15
Sysco and US Foods, the two biggest national foodservice suppliers, want to merge, and the meanies at the Federal Trade Commission won’t let them. Regulators think this merger would be bad for the companies’ customers–and their customers are food service institutions ranging from the most humble snack bars to the fanciest restaurants. Back in February, the FTC sued to stop the merger, and today a federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking it. [More]
FCC Chair: Relax, Cable Companies, Not All Mergers Are Necessarily Doomed Forever
By 5.22.15
The collapse of the much-discussed, absolutely enormous Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger earlier this year might have been an occasion for consumers and consumer advocates to cheer — but for businesses, it was much less good news. Cable companies that want to buy other cable companies are kind of freaked out: what if the FCC is hostile to their plans, too? [More]
Bumble Bee And Chicken Of The Sea Plan Merger Into Giant Can Of Tuna
By 12.23.14
Great news if you can’t tell the difference Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee, two of the major tuna brands that you’re likely to see on the shelf at your local grocery store. Pending regulator approval, the two brands will combine into one as the owner of Chicken of the Sea, Thai Union Frozen Products PCL, recently announced that it plans to acquire Bumble Bee [More]
Tyson Foods Ups Hillshire Bid To $8.5B, Competitor Pilgrim’s Pride Withdraws Offer
By 6.9.14
If there were a book dedicated to showing companies how to win bidding wars, one of the surefire way to come out on top might include raising your offer by $2 billion. The tactic seems to have worked for Tyson Foods in its quest to outbid Pilgrim’s Pride in acquiring Hillshire Brands. [More]
Comcast And Charter Consider Buying Time Warner Cable. No, Really
By 11.22.13
There are many changes that could improve cable television and broadband internet service in the United States, but “more mergers” certainly isn’t one of them. That’s why we started screaming hysterically in the Consumerist offices today when we learned that Charter and Comcast are both weighing their options and thinking about acquiring Time Warner Cable. [More]
Walgreens Opens Wide, Swallows Up Duane Reade
By 2.17.10
Anyone who’s lived in — or even visited — New York City is familiar with Duane Reade Pharmacies, the only business that competes with Starbuck in terms of retail space in the five boroughs. And, as a New Yorker, I know it’s a love-hate relationship with the local chain. But the era of a Duane Reade on every corner in Manhattan may be coming to an end with the announcement this morning that Illinois-based drugstore giant Walgreens is in the process of buying Duane Reade out. [More]
By 8.14.07
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Sorry, AirTran, your hostile takeover failed. An investment group lead by Northwest Airlines will buy Midwest Airlines, taking the airline private. The fate of the chocolate chip cookies is unknown. [Washington Post]
