Albertsons on Wednesday called off its $24.6 billion merger with Kroger, a day after a judge temporarily blocked the union, and sued the rival grocery chain for breach of contract.
“Given the recent federal and state court decisions to block our proposed merger with Kroger, we have made the difficult decision to terminate the merger agreement,” Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran said in a statement. “We are deeply disappointed in the courts’ decisions.”
In a separate statement issued Wednesday, Albertsons said it is suing Kroger for willful breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Albertsons alleges that Kroger failed “to exercise ‘best efforts’ and to take ‘any and all actions’ to secure regulatory approval of the companies’ agreed merger transaction, as was required of Kroger under the terms of the merger agreement between the parties,” according to the statement.
In an email to CBS News, Kroger called Albertsons’ claims “baseless and without merit.”
“Kroger refutes these allegations in the strongest possible terms, especially in light of Albertsons’ repeated intentional material breaches and interference throughout the merger process,” a spokesperson told CBS News.
—This is a breaking story and will be updated.
