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Court Delays Whole Foods/Wild Oats Deal

Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Markets have until Wednesday afternoon to respond to Federal Trade Commission arguments that the buyout should not go forward due to antitrust issues.

The company had planned to move ahead with the $565 million deal, announced six months ago, as early as noon Monday if the U.S. Appeals Court had not issued a stay. Whole Foods said the FTC looked at the deal the wrong way, focusing on natural and organic grocers rather than taking a broader view of the overall industry. When Whole Foods announced its plan to buy Wild Oats for $18.50 per share on Feb. 21, it said it faced increased pressure from larger players.

Whole Foods, which has about 200 stores, rang up less than $5.61 billion in sales in its fiscal year ended in September 2006, while Wild Oats has annual sales of about $1.2 billion. By comparison, Kroger Co, the largest mainstream, U.S. grocery chain, posted $66.1 billion in sales for its fiscal year ended in February and has more than 2,460 grocery stores.

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