(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

BOISE, ID-Grocer Supervalu, along with drugstore chain CVS Corp. and a group of investors including retail-REIT Kimco Realty Corp., is acquiring Albertsons for $17.4 billion. Albertsons shareholders will receive $20.35 in cash and 0.182 shares of Supervalu for their company's individual stocks, and the parties expect to close the deal by the summer.

Minneapolis-based Supervalu will take the bulk of the company, paying $12.4 billion of the total transaction, made up of $3.8 billion in cash, $2.5 billion in stock and $6.1 billion in debt assumption. CVS, based in Woonsocket, RI, is buying 700 Albertsons stand-alone drug stores for $2.9 billion. A group that led by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which includes Kimco, Schottenstein Stores Corp., Lubert-Adler Partners and Klaff Realty, gets the rest.

Supervalu's portion of the deal will give the company an additional 1,124 stores and bring its portfolio to 2,653 units. The company is picking stores under the banners of Acme Markets, Albertsons, Bristol Farms, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Markets in the Intermountain, Northeast, Northwest and Southern California regions.