Grocery store chain Albertsons is buying back 33 stores the government required it to sell when it acquired rival Safeway Inc. earlier this year, a highly unusual development approved by a judge on Tuesday that highlights a misfire by US antitrust enforcers, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A federal bankruptcy court approved the auction of 55 stores by Bellingham, Wash.-based Haggen Holdings, 33 of which go back to Boise-based Albertsons.
The Federal Trade Commission told the Wall Street Journal it had no objection to the stores returning to Albertsons because there were no alternative bidders.
Full content: The Wall Street Journal
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