Dive Brief:
- Dollar Tree will acquire rival Family Dollar in an all-stock deal worth $8.5 billion.
- The deal combines two low-end retailers with slightly different approaches and markets into a single company with extensive reach.
- The combined brands will run some 13,000 stores in the United States -- more than rival Dollar General's 11,300 locations.
Dive Insight:
The big winners here are the activist investors who have pushed for a sale of Family Dollar. The big losers are the other discount retailers like Dollar General and Wal-Mart.
And when the dust settles from this deal, it should be clear that the retail game here in the States is looking increasingly like the retail game in the U.K. -- split between a handful of players chasing the upscale shopper, and a handful of players chasing the low-income consumer.