As corporate mergers go, the purchase of natural foods grocer Wild Oats by its rival Whole Foods Market looked like small potatoes (organic yellow fingerling, perhaps). Nobody expected the proposed $565 million acquisition to spark a food fight of epic proportions.

But on March 6 — after two years, $28 million in legal fees and expenses, and dozens of lawyers — Whole Foods cut a deal to end the battle. And the Federal Trade Commission carved another notch in its reputation for aggressive antitrust enforcement.

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