Jan 16, 2024 - Business

Kroger and Albertsons delay closing date for $25 billion merger

Supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons on Monday pushed back the closing of their proposed megamerger, which originally was set for early 2024.

The big picture: This is yet another case of big corporations misreading the regulatory tea leaves, on both the federal and state levels.

The Federal Trade Commission isn't expected to decide until next month whether to challenge the $25 billion deal, as scooped last week by Axios Pro. If it does file suit, even August could be aggressive.
Washington state's attorney general last week sued to block the merger, with peers continuing to review the situation.
Kroger and Albertsons said in a statement that they "remain in active and ongoing dialogue" with the FTC and state AGs.

The bottom line: The companies' revised timeline is "in the first half of Kroger's fiscal 2024," which ends on Aug. 12.