Amazon To Buy Whole Foods For A Whopping $13.7 Billion

In a purchase that has taken Wall Street by surprise, Amazon will be acquiring organic food retailer for a staggering $13.7 billion.

It was earlier this week that Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey was fighting with activist hedge fudge investors and called Jana Partners “greedy bastards.”

Both companies made the announcement on Friday with Amazon announcing that it would buy Whole Foods for $42 per share. Considering that Whole Foods’ stock closed at $33.06 on Thursday, this is a pretty big deal for both companies.
This is Amazon’s biggest deal ever, even more than what it paid for Zappos back in 2009 when it acquired that company for $1.2 billion.

Whole Foods share blew up after the announcement and soared 27% to $41.99 a share, just a penny shy of Amazon’s buy out price. Amazon shares also so a lift and rose to $996 in early morning trading.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos commented, “Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy. Whole Foods Market has been satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers for nearly four decades — they’re doing an amazing job and we want that to continue.”

John Mackey will remain as CEO and the company will keep its headquarters in Austin, Texas. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.

Despite the gains today, shares of Whole Foods are still down considerably since trading at $60 per share back in 2013.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFM) and have not been compensated for this article.