Amazon.com Inc. will acquire Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.7 billion, a bombshell of a deal that catapults the e-commerce giant into hundreds of physical stores and fulfills a long-held goal of selling more groceries.
Amazon agreed to pay $42 a share in cash for the organic-food chain, including debt, a roughly 27 percent premium to the stock price at the June 15 close. John Mackey, Whole Foods’ outspoken co-founder, will continue to run the business—a victory after a fight with activist investor Jana Partners that threatened to drive him from power.
The deal sends shockwaves across both the online ...