Circle K owner paying nearly $9 billion for Poland's Zabka

Catch up quick: Seven & i had been linked to Zabka until just earlier this week, after which Couche-Tard swooped in.

• Couche-Tard previously tried to buy Seven & i for around $47 billion, but finally gave up the ghost last July.

Zoom in: Zabka backers include private equity firms CVC Capital Partners and Partners Group, both of which say they'll tender their shares to Couche-Tard.

Elsewhere: SoftBank, PayPay, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial each have agreed to invest around ¥100b into Seven & i, trying the retailer closer to payments infrastructure.

Go deeper, via the WSJ: "Zabka operates more than 13,000 stores across Poland and Romania and boasts around 4.3 million average daily transactions. The Polish food retailer also boasts around 11.7 million users across its digital channels."