NSFM Whole Foods Merger Update

Whole Foods Market, Inc. is moving rapidly to integrate Wild Oats' corporate operations and the retail stores into its Whole Foods system and philosophy. As we (NSFM) reported earlier today Will Paradise, Rocky Mountain Regional President for Whole Foods, announced the grocer's plans for the Boulder, Colorado region, Wild Oats' home territory.

Whole Foods now has a news release detailing these plans in full. You can read the full news release by clicking here: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070830005229&newsLang=en

There's much discussion in the media today about various aspects of the merger. Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM) thought we would bring our readers a few of the most interesting of today's articles about Whole Foods, Wild Oats, the merger and the personalities and issues behind it.

First, two articles, one in the Wall Street Journal and the other in the magazine the Nation, take different points of view on Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey and his memo writing and online chat room postings prior to the consumation of the merger. Holman Jenkins, writing in the Wall Street Journal, doesn't believe Mackey's postings are relevant. On the other hand Matthew Blake in the Nation argues they are relevant and more.

You can read the Wall Street Journal story by clicking below: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118835512038911889.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The story from the Nation is here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070910/blake

Next, this article from today's Tennessean.com talks about a trip Whole Foods' executives made to Nashville yesterday to ask workers at a Wild Oats store to stick with the company. Whole Foods is getting ready to open their first store in Nashville. The Wild Oats store in Nashville is slated to close in October--but yesterday Whole Foods' executives offered all of the Wild Oats store's workers jobs at the new, larger Whole Foods store which is set to open soon. Click the link below to read the full article: http://www.ashlandcitytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/BUSINESS01/708300375/1291/MTCN01

Lastly, this story in today's Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper profiles the legal team who won the Whole Foods Market, Inc. acquisition case from the Federal Trade Commission . Among other things the law firm says in the story that the case will be a guide for future merger law in all industries and provides a clear road map for how to handle similar cases in the future. Click on the link below to read the full story from today's issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20070830_Dechert_lawyers_tout_Whole_Foods_ruling.html