Albertsons Companies Inc. filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Kroger Co., accusing the latter of a contract breach as it believes the firm failed to "exercise 'best efforts' and to take 'any and all actions' to secure regulatory approval of the companies' agreed merger transaction."
According to a statement made by Albertsons, Kroger violated the agreement by "repeatedly refusing to divest assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignoring regulators' feedback, rejecting stronger divestiture buyers and failing to cooperate."
Albertsons asked for billions of dollars in damages and terminated the merger deal, which entitles the company to an immediate $600 million termination fee. Earlier, United States District Judge Adrienne Nelson blocked the acquisition, stating that it would hurt the competition.
