Foods Market Essay

For months, entirely Foods Market and its legal team have waged a precise public battle against the Federal Trade Commissions charges that the high-end grocers 2007 merger with Wild Oats Markets violated antitrust laws. The court strife started in June 2007 when FTC lawyers first tried to prevent the merger by register suit in the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Then, last October, Whole Foods raised the stakes by unleashing lobbying and media campaigns against the FTC. After all of that, this mornings announcement that Whole Foods has agreed to settle with the FTC raises an obvious question why?Decherd partner Paul Denis, who has represented Whole Foods since 2007 in defending the merger, says it came vote out to money, and Whole Foods also just wanted to move on. This is a very expensive process, he says, adding that Whole Foods thought if made sense to learn to eliminate that cash burden. In December, Whole Foods said it had spent $16 million on attorney and expert fees since 2007. Asked whether allocating additional resources to the public skin against the FTC was worth it for his client, Denis says, You do what you have to defend yourself. You can never affect yourself is it worth it.