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Amazon to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion cash

@ReutersBiz
BREAKING: Amazon to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion cash


Hopefully the food won't be so damn expensive now.
It will.

EDIT: More from CNBC

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos Cramer: Amazon could dominate food retail within next two years with Whole Foods deal
1 Hour Ago | 04:35
Shares of Whole Foods Market rocketed 28 percent on Friday after Amazon said it plans to acquire the grocery store chain for $42 a share, in a deal valued at $13.7 billion.

Amazon's offer represents a 27 percent premium to Whole Foods' closing price on Thursday. With Whole Foods shares trading around Amazon's offer price, investors appear to be speculating that another suitor could make a play for the grocery chain.

Whole Foods has been under pressure from activist investor Jana Partners and money manager Neuberger Berman, which have called on Whole Foods to sell itself. The investors have criticized Whole Foods for its poor performance, and have suggested the chain could be merged with another grocer.

"This partnership presents an opportunity to maximize value for Whole Foods Market's shareholders, while at the same time extending our mission and bringing the highest quality, experience, convenience and innovation to our customers," John Mackey, Whole Foods' CEO, said in a statement.

Mackey will remain CEO of the grocery store chain after the deal closes, and the store will continue to operate under the Whole Foods brand.

Amazon has long been pushing to expand its online grocery business, seeing it as an emerging opportunity. Currently, very few people purchase their groceries online even as more shoppers switch to buying other goods that way.

Bonus: Wal-Mart dropped 4% and Kroger 12% when the deal was announced
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Oh man. I hope they keep the HQ in Austin. There are a decent number of jobs there....

I'm worried Amazon is buying a name for their grocery delivery service.
 
Wasn't Amazon the company that was planning a grocery store that was so smart you could just walk in, grab the food, and walk out without needing to pay? Maybe this is a move toward that.
 

old

Member
Amazon announced some brick and mortar shopping store recently. You walk out without going through a checkout line. Cameras follow you and bill your account.

Maybe they're going to do that with WF.
 

H3xum

Member
Just the next step in Amazon being your one stop shop. They'll implement delivery and they just expanded their Prime Pantry infinitely
 

lush

Member
Is this how they finally push Amazon Go/Fresh everywhere?

Far and away their largest acquisition to date.
 

Chris1

Member
Wasn't Amazon the company that was planning a grocery store that was so smart you could just walk in, grab the food, and walk out without needing to pay? Maybe this is a move toward that.

Definitely is

The only thing that's gonna come from this is a shit ton of people losing their jobs
 

corn_fest

Member
Pretty crazy. I would assume this means we'll be seeing an increased focus on their grocery services.

Honestly, grocery shopping sucks, so I wouldn't be opposed to Amazon trying to disrupt that space with a home delivery network.
 

Kayhan

Member
Wasn't Amazon the company that was planning a grocery store that was so smart you could just walk in, grab the food, and walk out without needing to pay? Maybe this is a move toward that.

Amazon-Whole Food will just automatically clean out your checking account.

They will call it 'Amazon-Whole Check'
 

Ron Mexico

Member
Even if they run the stores themselves as independent outlets, you have to think the distribution part will serve to extend AmazonFresh exponentially.
 

Nikodemos

Member
I'll bet there's some creative money-laundering involved in this. Companies like Amazon invariably have loads of funds slushing around offshore for tax dodging purposes.
 
Always fancied going to whole foods if i ever have a tonne of spare money, there's one in a nearby town to me in england (surprisingly as the only other one I've ever seen is in london)
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Soon we will have robots grow our food, harvest it, pack it, drive it to the grocery store, deliver it to our homes, cook it and eat it for us!
 
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