The Albertsons-Kroger merger is off

The bitter breakup came the day after two judges halted the proposed merger in separate court cases. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson in Oregon issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking the merger until an in-house judge at the Federal Trade Commission could consider the matter.

I mean... what is either company suppose to do when a judge tells you you can't sell something, and then the FTC is going give its r-slurred decision?

An hour later, Superior Court Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger. Ferguson ruled that combining Albertsons and Kroger would lessen competition and violate consumer-protection laws.

Albertsons is unlikely to find another merger partner because it has significant debt and underperforming stores in most of its markets., Flickinger said. Consumers will feel the most immediate impact of the deal's demise, he said, since Albertsons charges 12% to 14% more than Kroger and other grocery rivals.

"They had so much debt they had to pay it off it's reflected in their pricing and promotional structure," Flickinger said.

Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran testified during the federal hearing in September that his company might consider "structural options" like laying off employees, closing stores and exiting certain markets if the merger with Kroger didn't go through.

And what better way to increase competition and stop the imaginary violation of consumer-protection laws by causing the company to go bankrupt.

Kroger and Albertsons first proposed the merger in 2022. They argued that combining would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, which are gaining an increasing share of U.S. grocery sales. Together, Kroger and Albertsons would control around 13% of the U.S. grocery market. Walmart controls around 22%.

Again, government did this because being competitive against larger companies is bad for consumers.

Government is r-slurred.

Albertsons said Kroger refused to divest the assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignored regulators' feedback and rejected divestiture buyers that would have been stronger than C&S.

"Kroger's self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons' shareholders, associates and consumers," said Tom Moriarty, Albertsons' general counsel, in a statement.

I can't believe Kroger didn't want to bend the knee to government's r-slurred demands. It's all Kroger's fault!!!

Kroger sued the FTC in August in federal court in Ohio, claiming that the federal agency's in-house administrative hearings were unlawful because the FTC was also able to challenge the merger in federal court in Oregon. In paperwork filed Wednesday, the FTC said it expected to update the court on its next steps in that case by Dec. 17.

In Colorado, which also sued to block the merger, Attorney General Phil Weiser said Tuesday that he still was awaiting a decision from a state judge. In that case, Colorado also was challenging an allegedly illegal no-poach agreement Kroger and Albertsons made during a 2022 strike.

And you got to deal with multiple r-slurred governments.

SHOW MORE