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Attorney General Janet Mills Announces Terms of Settlement Allowing Dollar Tree to Acquire Family Dollar?s stores
July 2, 2015
(Augusta, Maine) ? Maine Attorney General Janet Mills announced the terms of a settlement that she and 16 other States have reached with Dollar Tree, Inc., following their review of the company?s proposed acquisition of Family Dollar Stores, Inc. The merger combines two large national chains of deep discount stores.
Working with the Federal Trade Commission, the State Attorneys General are requiring Dollar Tree to sell more than 300 Family Dollar store to a new competitor in order to complete the acquisition. All of the affected stores are to be sold and re-branded as Dollar Express stores, a new chain of deep discount stores being launched by Sycamore Partners.
Attorney General Mills said she was concerned that the merger would substantially lessen competition in several Maine markets and is requiring seven stores in Maine to be sold to Dollar Express. Those stores are located in: Caribou, Gray, Lewiston, Livermore Falls, Old Town, South Portland, and Waterville. In addition to these stores being sold to Dollar Express, Dollar Tree will be required to report or notify the Maine Attorney General?s office of future acquisitions or store relocations or closings.
?These stores are located in both small towns and in our larger cities and suburbs,? said Attorney General Mills. ?We wanted to be sure that in areas where these stores were near each other that there would still be competition to offer the best prices and merchandise.?
Attorney General Mills noted that her office worked with the Federal Trade Commission and the other Attorneys General in conducting a national review of the transaction. The Attorneys General have filed their lawsuit and proposed consent judgment in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.
Sycamore Partners is expected to acquire the stores being divested over the coming few months and operate them under its Dollar Express banner.
Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) is headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, and operates more than 4,200 stores, including more than 25 stores in Maine. Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) is headquartered in Matthews, North Carolina, and operates more than 8,000 stores nationwide, including approximately 60 stores in Maine.
