Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market in 2017 and became one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization.
Amazon completed the Whole Foods acquisition in August 2017 in a deal valued at approximately $13.7 billion including debt. Whole Foods continued operating as a grocery brand, while Amazon added physical stores to its broader retail and delivery network.
Amazon began as an online bookseller founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It expanded into general merchandise, logistics, digital media, devices, and cloud computing. Amazon Web Services became a major business by providing infrastructure and software services to organizations worldwide.
The Whole Foods purchase is often cited as an example of Amazon’s move into physical retail, but it did not replace the company’s online model. Amazon’s market capitalization is based on the value of its publicly traded shares and can change independently of the accounting value assigned to an acquisition.