Former Whole Foods CEO says he didn’t want to sell to Amazon, but activists threatened to take over his board, fire him, and sell the company anyway

fortune.com/2025/10/23/john-mackey-whole-foods-didnt-want-amazon-sale-jana-partners-threatened-take-over-board-fire-him-sell-company

Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods sent shockwaves through the retail industry in 2017. But in a revealing new interview, the man who built Whole Foods from a single Austin store into a natural foods empire says he never wanted to sell to Amazon at all—and only did so…

This story appeared on fortune.com, 2025-10-23 15:02:00.
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