Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Clears Last Two Major Hurdles<br />SEATTLE — Amazon’s bid to become a bigger player in the grocery business took a major step forward Wednesday,<br />as federal antitrust regulators approved the internet company’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market.<br />And earlier in the day, Whole Foods shareholders voted to approve the $13.4 billion deal, which will give Amazon a major<br />bricks-and-mortar presence with more than 460 stores in a huge retail category where success has eluded the company.<br />The food and beverage portion of the grocery business is one of the largest categories of consumer spending, totaling more than $800 billion<br />a year, with more than $450 billion in additional spending on personal care, pet and other consumable products, according to Cowen.<br />Amazon has run an internet grocery business, AmazonFresh, for a decade,<br />but it accounts for less than a 2 percent share of total grocery spending in the United States, according to estimates by Cowen & Company, a stock research firm.<br />The Federal Trade Commission, which was handling the federal review of the deal, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon<br />that the agency had concluded that the deal would not harm competition.<br />Antitrust lawyers had not expected the acquisition to be blocked by regulators, largely<br />because Amazon and Whole Foods are not major competitors today.
