Trading Partners

Bass Pro Shops's acquisition on rival Cabela's has passed another hurdle.     Cabela's shareholders voted to approve the sale of the hunting and outdoor retailer to Bass Pro, the company announced Tuesday. Cabela's agreed in April to be bought by Bass Pro Shops for $61.50 a share, down from the original purchase price of $65.50 a share, valuing the acquisition at $4.2 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017.  

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has taken itself off the selling block.   The teen retailer said it has ended talks regarding a potential sale and will instead continue to focus on turning around its business as a standalone business.    

The chairman and CEO of Sears Holding Co., is reportedly considering a deal with bankrupt Sears Canada.  

As it turns out, there was lots of interest in Whole Foods Market.   The retailer was fielding other potential deals, including approaches by four private equity firms and two unnamed companies identified only as "Company X" and "Company Y," when Amazon made its move, CNBC reported.   

The nation's largest supermarket operator is suing the German discount grocer Lidl over trademark infringement.    In a complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court in Virginia, Kroger claims that Lidl’s house brand, “Preferred Selection,” too closely resembles Kroger's own brand, “Private Selection.”  

In a deal that will bring together two longtime home shopping rivals, QVC is acquiring the Home Shopping Network.    Liberty Interactive Corp., owner of QVC, currently owns 38.2% of HSN parent HSNi. Under the agreement announced Thursday, Liberty will acquire the remaining 61.8% stake, making HSNi a wholly-owned subsidiary. The all-stock transaction has an enterprise value of $2.6 billion.   

Walgreens Boots Alliance has announced a new Rite Aid deal, effectively ending its nearly two-year quest to acquire the Camp Hill, Pa.-based drug store chain. The divestiture agreement with Fred's Pharmacy, whereby Fred's would buy 865 stores, is also terminated.  

The news that Walgreens is to scrap its $9.4 billion merger with Rite Aid is unsurprising. The glacial pace of the Federal Trade Commission investigation and increasing signals that the federal government would disallow the merger have forced a rethink.  

Walmart is asking its technology suppliers to pick sides in its retailing war with Amazon.   The retailing giant reportedly warned some tech companies that if they want its business, they can't run applications on Amazon’s cloud platform, Amazon Web Services. Walmart currently partners with tech suppliers that already leverage cloud apps running on AWS, although the retailer didn’t reveal which applications or how many they use, sources told the Wall Street Journal.  

Sears Canada could file for Chapter 11 sooner than expected.   The struggling offshoot of Sears Holdings Corp., is preparing to seek court protection against its creditors. The filing — which could happen within weeks — will likely lead to a liquidation, with the business sold off in pieces, sources told Bloomberg.