Monday, March 10, 2008

Chile In Headlines: Wal-Mart in Talks with D&S

So just last week D&S and Falabella officially dropped plans to merge their operations after Chile’s anti-trust commission rejected the proposed merger.

I said it would be good for Chile, good for small business, but if Wal-Mart buying D&S and entering Chile is the alternative…then hey bring on the merger!

Citing "industry sources" El Mercurio reported that D&S and Wal-Mart have been in talks since “shortly after the merger ended.” Not that entering the market would be easy. US retailers have failed before trying to get into Chile. (JC Penny and Home Depot for example) But Wal-Mart partnered with a successful local firm? Could get traction.

The news has already caught people's attention: the Santiago stock exchange suspended trade on D&S' stock until they clarify what is going on. D&S was quick to deny the rumors, but it was enough to raise at least a few eyebrows.

1 comment:

Mamacita Chilena said...

My husband used to work for Falabella's department of construction. So we were following the merger news pretty closely. But now he has a new job and I hadn't even thought about that for a while...like you said, if the no merger means the alternative is Walmart, oh god, PLEASE merge!