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Albertsons has terminated its proposed combination with Kroger and filed a lawsuit against its would-be acquirer, after a federal judge blocked the companies’ plan for the largest supermarket merger in US history.
Albertsons on Wednesday announced the decision to call a halt to the $25bn deal, which had been dogged by competition concerns. On Tuesday US district judge Adrienne Nelson in Oregon imposed a preliminary injunction on the deal that would have sent it to the Federal Trade Commission for further consideration.
Albertons said on Wednesday that following the ruling it had filed a lawsuit against Kroger in the Delaware Court of Chancery, “bringing claims for wilful breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing arising from Kroger’s failure to exercise ‘best efforts’ and to take ‘any and all actions’ to secure regulatory approval” of the proposed tie-up.
This is a developing story
