Amazon

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Amazon to buy upmarket grocer Whole Foods for $13.7 billion

Reuters
Fri Jun 16, 2017 | 9:55am EDT

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said it would buy Whole Foods Market Inc (WFM.O) in a deal valued at about $13.7 billion, including debt.

The $42 per share offer represents a premium of 27 percent to the upmarket grocery chain's Thursday close.

Whole Foods shares were halted at $32.77 in premarket trading, while Amazon's shares were up 0.5 percent at $969.

Excluding debt, the deal is valued at $13.39 billion, based on 318.9 million diluted shares outstanding as of April 9.

More details in http://www.reuters.com/article/us-whole-...SKBN1971QJ

Bloomberg version on the acquisition.

http://www.theedgemarkets.com.sg/enterpr...ocery-cart

Key points of the acquisition, are the followings, IMHO. Hundreds of "matured" physical stores, and skill to achieve 2/3 sales on fresh products.

The Whole Foods purchase gives Amazon hundreds of physical stores, the footprint the company knows it needs. More than that, Whole Foods has mastered fresh food: The company gets two-thirds of its sales from perishables like fruits, vegetables and meats, while most supermarkets get only about 25% of sales from those categories, according to Kurt Jetta, CEO of consumer products research firm TABS Analytics. And the Whole Foods deal gives Amazon strong industry knowledge, something it knows it’s lacking, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.