Breaking News: Idaho’s Albertsons Suing Kroger

With friends like Albertsons and Kroger, who need enemies, for a long time, the public was told these two supermarket giants were required to merge. The merger was necessary to save the consumer and compete against Walmart and Amazon. Yesterday, two judges said the merger was a violation of antitrust laws.

Today, Albertsons is suing Kroger for not securing the 24.6-billion-dollar merger. The Idaho-based Albertsons says Ohio-based Kroger didn't do its homework before facing significant merger challenges. Albertsons quickly filed a lawsuit stating their reasons for giving Kroger the boot. Here is their statement from the company's press release.

Tom Moriarty, Albertsons' General Counsel and Chief Policy Officer, said: "A successful merger between Albertsons and Kroger would have delivered meaningful benefits for America's consumers, Kroger's and Albertsons' associates, and communities across the country. Rather than fulfill its contractual obligations to ensure that the merger succeeded, Kroger acted in its own financial self-interest, repeatedly providing insufficient divestiture proposals that ignored regulators' concerns. Kroger's self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons' shareholders, associates and consumers. We are disappointed that the opportunity to realize the significant benefits of the merger has been lost on account of Kroger's willfully deficient approach to securing regulatory clearance."

You can read more about the reasoning behind the lawsuit here. Kroger also responded to the Wall Street Journal.

A Kroger spokeswoman said Albertsons' claims are baseless and without merit. Kroger said that Albertsons repeatedly breached the merger agreement during the deal process and that the suit is an attempt to deflect responsibility, and to seek payment of the merger's breakup fee, to which Kroger said Albertsons isn't entitled. 

The public will now witness whether Albertsons will follow through on their statements in court saying they would close stores and layoffs workers. Could the merger be saved? Perhaps Donald Trump's FTC will bring them back to the bargaining table.