Trading Partners

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.   

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.   

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.  

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.  

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.  

Out-of-state Web-based retailers are taking a stand against paying sales tax in the state of Massachusetts.   According to a directive from the Department of Revenue, any online retailer vendor headquartered outside of the state is required to register, collect and remit sales tax. In Massachusetts, this is 6.25%. The directive applies to companies that sold more than $500,000 annually in the state and made sales for in-state delivery in 100 or more transactions.  

Amazon’s lending program has hit epic proportions, with one-third of loans being granted in the last year, alone.   The online giant’s Amazon Lending program has surpassed $3 billion in loans to small businesses since the service launched in 2011. Specifically, Amazon has lent more than $1 billion to small businesses in the last 12 months, and more than 20,000 small businesses have received a loan from Amazon.