Whole Foods Buys Largest Competitor

It's official: Whole Foods now owns its biggest rival, Wild Oats Markets.

Despite a juicy scandal over Chairman and CEO John "rahodeb" Mackey's anonymous web postings and the Federal Trade Commission's earnest efforts to prevent what they believed was a serious antitrust violation, the deal was given the green light by a federal appeals court last Thursday. Whole Foods' buyout offer called for purchasing all outstanding shares of Wild Oats for $18.50 a pop; the finalized deal was announced this morning.

"While closing this merger has taken longer than we anticipated, we are very excited to now begin the integration process," said Mackey. "We have always benefited from learning from our past acquisitions and believe this merger will result in a company that is much stronger and better positioned for the future."

According to their previously announced plans, Whole Foods will be selling all of Wild Oats' "Sun Harvest"-branded stores to a California-based retailer. Each remaining Wild Oats Market will be individually evaluated to see if it's in line with the company's "overall brand and real estate strategy," said today's press release.

Photo by Todd Ross Nienkerk for That Other Paper on flickr