Kroger’s $25 billion proposed takeover of rival Albertsons ultimately failed because two judges – one federal and the other from the state of Washington – didn’t buy the competitive vision the grocers were trying to sell,

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The Washington ruling marks the second major blow to Kroger and Albertsons’ plan to combine, coming shortly after Judge Adrienne Nelson of the U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, issued her ruling granting a preliminary injunction in favor of the Federal Trade Commission.