Foods Market Essay

For months, full-page Foods Market and its legal team book waged a very public battle against the Federal concern Commissions charges that the high-end grocers 2007 merger with Wild Oats Markets violated antitrust laws. The court fight started in June 2007 when FTC lawyers first tried to prevent the merger by filing suit in the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Then, last October, Whole Foods raised the stakes by unleashing lobbying and media campaigns against the FTC. After all of that, this mornings announcement that Whole Foods has agreed to settle with the FTC raises an obvious question Why?Decherd partner Paul Denis, who has represented Whole Foods since 2007 in defending the merger, says it came down to money, and Whole Foods also just wanted to move on. This is a very expensive process, he says, adding that Whole Foods thought if made sense to try to eliminate that exchange burden. In December, Whole Foods said it had spent $16 million on attorney and exp ert fees since 2007. Asked whether allocating additional resources to the public fight against the FTC was worth it for his client, Denis says, You do what you have to defend yourself. You can never ask yourself is it worth it.