Billionaire grocery magnate Ronald W. Burkle plans to branch out from the supermarket aisles he knows so well to the fast-moving world of the Internet, after announcing an $8-billion deal Monday to sell Fred Meyer Inc. to Kroger Co., a spokesman said.
The agreement to sell Fred Meyer to the largest U.S. supermarket company is just the latest in a string of deals by Burkle, who started his career sweeping the floors and stacking loaves of bread at a grocery store in Claremont.
In the last 12 years, Burkle, 45, has bagged and delivered more than $25 billion worth of mergers. That includes the deal to acquire Kroger for about $8 billion in stock, plus $5 billion in assumed debt, on the heels of a deal last week to sell Illinois-based Dominick's Supermarkets Inc., of which Burkle is the chairman, to Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc. for $1.85 billion.
Once the latest deal is completed, Burkle, also chairman of Fred Meyer, would become chairman of the new Kroger executive committee. That means he would not have as much of a day-to-day role, analysts said.
Instead, Burkle hopes to be a player on the Internet. He's expected in the next month to announce a multimillion-dollar venture with Richard Wolpert, who resigned as president of Disney Online in June after two years with that division.
Wolpert began his career at Apple Computer Inc. in Silicon Valley, where in 1984 he helped design the Macintosh Programmers Workshop, which helped develop the Macintosh. He also taught a class at Stanford University on how to write stand-alone applications for the Mac.
While those close to Burkle aren't talking, and Burkle wasn't available for comment Monday, some have suggested the latest collaboration will be an electronic commerce venture based in Century City.
"We will be making a major announcement in the next few weeks that we are very excited about," said Darius Anderson, spokesman for the Los Angeles-based Yucaipa Cos.
Burkle is also the head of Yucaipa, a supermarket investment firm that owned the Ralphs and Food 4 Less grocery store chains before they were sold to Fred Meyer, creating the nation's fourth-largest grocery store chain. Yucaipa holds 9% of Fred Meyer's stock.
Grocery store chains are scrambling to combine to better compete against fast-growing rivals such as Wal-Mart, which are stocking more groceries.
