Well that escalated quickly. In less than a week of writing about Kroger and the potential Albertson deal, this $25 billion mega-merger between these two supermarket titans has officially gone poof. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, Albertsons’ CEO Vivek Sankaran dropped the “it’s not me, it’s you” bomb in a statement, pulling the plug on what was supposed to be the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history. The crazy bart? Albertsons also slapped Kroger with a lawsuit, accusing them of ghosting on their commitment to make this deal happen. Basically, they’re saying Kroger didn’t “swipe right” hard enough with regulators to seal the deal. Kroger, of course, fired back, calling the lawsuit “baseless.” Corporate shade level: expert.

(Source: CNN) 

Now to rewind a bit, this deal was first announced in 2022 with promises of lower prices for consumers (lol, sure) and a united front against grocery titans like Walmart and Amazon. But the proposal hit a regulatory brick wall due to antitrust concerns. Simply put, a federal in Oregon wasn’t buying the “but we need this to compete” argument, ruling that this merger would hurt competition and potentially jack up prices. Translation: Consumers would end up paying more for milk and eggs, and ain’t nobody got time for that.

Additionally, it wasn’t just the courts that were punching air. Unions, small grocery stores, and politicians on both sides of the aisle joined the resistance, channeling their inner Braveheart to avoid a monopoly at all costs. The Federal Trade Commission even sued to block the deal, with outgoing chair Lina Khan fist pumping this one last win before handing the reins to a new boss.

(Source: CNBC) 

Meanwhile, Albertsons and Kroger reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars in their two-year push to make this merger happen. Lawyers, consultants, and PR firms probably made out better than anyone else here. Money well spent? Debatable. But hey, at least the Suits have job security for a while.

So with that said, what now? Well, Albertsons is licking its wounds by suing Kroger and announcing a $2 billion stock buyback program to soothe investors. Kroger, meanwhile, is wallowing in its own self-pity. Of course,  CEO Rodney McMullen insists Kroger doesn’t need mergers to thrive. “We’ll continue to go on,” he stated, presumably while chuckling at the fact that his pay to that of the median Kroger worker’s salary is currently sitting at 502-to-1 (wild).

McMullen on company calls, probably (Source: Giphy) 

For now though,  both stocks saw a slight bump as Wall Street collectively shrugged, muttering, “We saw this coming.” But make no mistake, this clusterf**k is far from over. So with that, place your bets accordingly, friends and enjoy the show. As always, stay safe and stay frosty! Until next time… 

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Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon as mentioned in the article.