Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) shareholders have voted in favor of being acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The vote of approval for Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods came during a meeting of shareholders today. This meeting took place at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. With the vote done, the deal now only needs approval from regulators and to complete other customary closing conditions.
If all goes right with regulators, Amazon will close the deal to acquire Whole Foods during the second half of 2017. The company will be paying a total of $13.7 billion, or $42 per share, for the the retailer. This will make it the largest deal of the year, reports CNBC.
What may be most interesting about the deal for Whole Foods is the possibilities it will open to Amazon. The company has only dipped its toe into the physical retail landscape, but will have access to WFM’s 460 locations once the deal is complete. It could also be good news for Whole Foods by having AMZN handle the e-commerce section of its business.
Amazon is already a giant among online retailers, but it doesn’t have all categories covered. One that it may enter with the acquisition of Whole Foods is the meal-kit delivery business. This would be bad news for Blue Apron Holdings Inc (NYSE:APRN), which has had nothing but trouble since its IPO earlier this year.
WFM stock was largely unaffected by the news and AMZN stock was down slightly as of Wednesday morning.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
