Lawyers for Albertsons Cos. have asked a Delaware judge to make Kroger Co. pay more than $9.3 billion over the collapse of the two companies' merger, Bloomberg reported on October 12th, 2026, citing a filing made Monday in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

The Wall Street Journal published a story the same day under a headline putting the demand at $8 billion. Rolling Out, also writing on October 12th, 2026, said the unsealed filing carried the $9.3 billion figure and that an earlier report had described $8 billion as the minimum sought. Kroger says it owes nothing.

What happened

According to Bloomberg, the demand breaks into three parts: the premium Albertsons stockholders would have collected had the deal closed, a $600 million termination fee, and $75 million in interest and additional costs. Albertsons is asking Judge Lori Will to find that Kroger willfully breached the merger agreement by failing to use best efforts to win regulatory approval, including by refusing to change its plan to divest certain assets.

In the filing, as quoted by Bloomberg, Albertsons said Kroger had agreed to remove any antitrust impediment to the merger, with no limit other than that Kroger did not have to divest more than 650 stores. The case is Albertsons Companies, Inc. v. The Kroger Co., C.A. No. 2024-1276-LWW, per Bloomberg Law and Delaware Chancery records posted by Justia.

What is at stake

Kroger told the court in a separate Monday filing that it kept its end of the bargain and spent more than a billion dollars pursuing the deal, Bloomberg Law reported. Kroger called the demand for billions in additional damages a far-fetched legal theory resting on estimated taxes tied to the deal premium. Kroger has also countersued, alleging that Albertsons coordinated with divestiture buyer C&S Wholesale Grocers to push regulators toward requiring a larger sell-off, according to Quartz's account of Bloomberg's reporting and Reuters' earlier report on the countersuit.

No damages ruling has been made. The figures in circulation are a pre-trial demand from one side, Kroger denies liability, and the trial had not begun as of October 12th, 2026. The facts available carry no stock reaction to the filing, so none is stated here. The chart below is one year of trading in KR for context only.

What the record shows

Kroger's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended August 15th, 2026, filed with the SEC, states that Albertsons sued in the Delaware Court of Chancery on December 10th, 2024, and that trial is scheduled to begin on October 19th, 2026. Bloomberg describes it as a two-week trial.

The same filing lays out the regulatory path: the Federal Trade Commission sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon on February 26th, 2024, and that court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the merger on December 10th, 2024. The underlying transaction was Kroger's October 2022 agreement to buy Albertsons at $34.10 a share, valued at $24.6 billion. Briefs.co, summarizing coverage of the filing, reported that Albertsons' largest investor is Cerberus Capital Management, which held a stake of more than 30% at the end of June.

Our own insider record adds nothing to this story. The event here is a court filing by a counterparty, not a Form 4, and no insider transaction forms part of it.

What to watch

Separately, Grocery Dive reported on October 12th, 2026 that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to the FTC and the Justice Department on October 5th, 2026 asking them to carefully scrutinize the potential anticompetitive implications of three pending food-industry deals: Kroger's $1.65 billion purchase of Giant Eagle, Sysco's proposed acquisition of Restaurant Depot, and McCormick's planned purchase of Unilever's food business. Warren's letter said the three mergers appear to show a growing consolidation trend driven by weak antitrust enforcement under President Trump that raises costs and hurts consumers, restaurants and small businesses.

Kroger announced the Giant Eagle agreement on July 1st, 2026, CNBC reported, citing Reuters. WVXU and WKYC reported the price consists of $1.25 billion in cash plus assumption of roughly $400 million in liabilities, covering about 197 supermarkets and 11 standalone pharmacies with roughly $9 billion in annual sales, with closing expected in 2027 subject to regulatory clearance. CNBC noted it is Kroger's first major acquisition since the Albertsons merger collapsed and the first under CEO Greg Foran.

Reporting in this story comes from Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance, The Wall Street Journal, Quartz, Grocery Dive, CNBC citing Reuters, WVXU, PYMNTS/CPI, the Spokesman-Review, Kroger's Form 10-Q on SEC EDGAR and Delaware Chancery records posted by Justia, dated October 12th, 2026 unless otherwise noted.

Informational only, not investment advice.