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Traders are giving up on a rival bid for Whole Foods (WFM)

The dust has finally settled on the Whole Foods-Amazon acquisition.

It's been several weeks since Amazon announced it would be buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, and it seems as if the dust has finally settled.

Amazon wants to buy Whole Foods for $42 a share in cash. A curious thing happened right after news of the offer — the stock price rose above $42.

Buying Whole Foods stock for, say, $43 a share when Amazon had a deal to pay $42 in cash only makes sense if you think another bidder is lurking. If that bid never comes and Amazon pays what it always said it would — well anyone who paid more than $42 is losing money.

Those hopes have since (mostly) come out of the shares. Walmart was seen by investors as a major potential bidder but was said to not be interested according to Reuters. As time as passed, no rival bidder has appeared, and investors have lost hope.

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Traders buying the stock now still only profit if it moves well above the $42 offer price but on Thursday, the stock was trading at $42.02 and was below $42 for a minute.

The shares closed Wednesday just one cent lower than Amazon's bid at $41.99 — the lowest close since the deal was announced.

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