Dive Brief:
- Family Dollar Stores said Thursday that it's not interested in a $9 billion takeover offer from rival Dollar General. Instead, Family Dollar continues to support the $8.5 billion offer it received earlier from Dollar Tree.
- Family Dollar's board of directors said it was "not reasonably likely" that antitrust regulators would approve the Dollar General bid, despite an offer by Dollar General to sell 700 stores to appease regulators.
- Dollar General is already the largest of the three major dollar retailers. A merger of Family Dollar and Dollar Tree would topple Dollar General from first place.
Dive Insight:
The market was awash in speculation yesterday that Family Dollar is, in fact, quite interested in Dollar General's offer. But Family Dollar has no intention of taking anything other than a perfect deal....presumably one that would require Dollar General to complete the purchase no matter what regulators might require.
That sounds like the start of a good, old-fashioned bidding war.