Whole Foods drew interest from other potential suitors before striking Amazon

Two grocery companies and four private-equity firms expressed interest in possibly merging with Whole Foods Market Inc. or having some other business tie-up before the high-end grocery chain agreed to be bought by Amazon.com for $13.7 billion, a regulatory filing showed Friday.

None of the potential suitors was identified in the filing, which was the proxy statement for Whole Foods’ stockholders to vote on the deal.

One of the grocery companies, identified in the filing only as an “industry participant” called “Company X,” was privately held Albertsons, which owns numerous grocery chains, according to Reuters, citing one unidentified source.

Albertsons spokeswoman Christine Wilcox declined comment.

Amazon also told Whole Foods that the e-commerce giant would not engage in a bidding war with other suitors and that the $42 a share it has agreed to pay in the merger was Amazon’s “best and final offer,” the filing said.

The US grocery industry was jolted June 16 when Amazon announced the deal for Whole Foods, a 465-store chain that focuses on natural and organic foods and has nearly $16 billion in annual sales.

The $42 price amounted to a 27% premium above where Whole Foods’ stock had closed the prior day.

In the days after the merger announcement, Whole Foods’ stock traded above $43 a share, signaling that investors believed a rival offer might be coming. But the stock has since fallen back and closed at $42 Friday. – (Los Angeles Times/TNS)