Whole Foods settles case with FTC - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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The trustee will have six months to market the assetw to be sold and anothef six months beyond that for any good faith offers not finalized during the initial According to WholeFoodd (Nasdaq: WFMI), the only other obligations on the companuy imposed by the settlement are in support of the divestitures process. ”We are pleased to have reachexd a mutually satisfactory agreement with the said Whole Foods CEOJohn Mackey. Mackey "it will be business as usua l in the 13 operating stores to be marketedfor sale." Whole Foods operates four stores in the Puget Souns region, and one in Vancouver, Wash.
None of the 13 operatinyg Whole Foods stores that will be up for sale undefr the FTC settlement is locatedin Washington. In keepinvg with FTC protocol, the settlement agreement has been placedr on public record fora 30-dayt comment period that ends April 6. Afterf that the FTC will issue afinal ruling. As for how the settlemenft will affectWhole Foods' financial results, the company said it expectxs to record a noncashb charge of up to $19 millio related to the sale of the 13 operatintg stores. The combined stores had salexs ofabout $31 million in the firs quarter of fiscal year 2009, or about 1.3 percent of the company'xs stotal sales of $2.5 billion.
Whole Foode closed on its purchaseof Boulder, Colo.-basedx Wild Oats in August 2007 after an FTC antitrusty challenge to the deal was blockede by a U.S. District Courty judge. Last year, an appeals court ruled that that judge had erred in blockingthe challenge, whicbh allowed the FTC to reopehn the case. An administrative hearing on the antitrusrt case was scheduled forApril 6, but the two sidess agreed in January to halt litigatiomn in an attempt to negotiate a resolution.