Court Reverses Whole Foods - Wild Oats Merger

"Your government, hard at work: Now that the Whole Foods (WFMI) and Wild Oats integration is well under way, the DC US appeals court has reversed a lower court's ruling that the takeover can go through without first being scrutinized by antitrust authorities.

The deal, completed last August, saw WFMI purchase the 110-store Wild Oats for $565 million. Since then, Whole Foods has sold 35 of the Wild Oats stores, closed 12 more and converted an additional 1/3 to Whole Foods stores.

The merger has not been undone, just sent back to the lower court for further consideration. However, tell us how this deal can be reversed now? Also, considering that every major supermarket in the country--including Wal-Mart (WMT)--has organic/natural food offerings, we're not sure what about Whole Foods would constitute a monopoly."

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