Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Clears Last Two Major Hurdles

Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Clears Last Two Major Hurdles
SEATTLE — Amazon’s bid to become a bigger player in the grocery business took a major step forward Wednesday,
as federal antitrust regulators approved the internet company’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market.
And earlier in the day, Whole Foods shareholders voted to approve the $13.4 billion deal, which will give Amazon a major
bricks-and-mortar presence with more than 460 stores in a huge retail category where success has eluded the company.
The food and beverage portion of the grocery business is one of the largest categories of consumer spending, totaling more than $800 billion
a year, with more than $450 billion in additional spending on personal care, pet and other consumable products, according to Cowen.
Amazon has run an internet grocery business, AmazonFresh, for a decade,
but it accounts for less than a 2 percent share of total grocery spending in the United States, according to estimates by Cowen & Company, a stock research firm.
The Federal Trade Commission, which was handling the federal review of the deal, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon
that the agency had concluded that the deal would not harm competition.
Antitrust lawyers had not expected the acquisition to be blocked by regulators, largely
because Amazon and Whole Foods are not major competitors today.