Around August 20th, the US Federal Trade Commission cleared the way for Amazon to buy Whole Foods. The Associated Press noted the FTC had reviewed whether the deal would substantially lessen competition or consitutued an unfair method of competition and opted not to pursue its investigation further.

Shareholders had voted earlier to agree to the merger and Whole Foods technically belonged to Amazon. The FTC could have done something for to break up Whole Foods or to have Amazon guarantee a level of competition for the terms substantially lessen comptettion are used. Those terms mean different things to competitiors and the general public who shops at Whole Foods.

Linking to dividend paying companies, all dividend paying companies hire lobbyinst or have links to regulators just in case something similar to a takeover or potential takeover happens. Part of being a successful company is to ensure government barriers which help your company does not help the competition. Otherwise, dividend companies embrace the status quo and often times so does govenment institutions.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.