New York — Amazon.com is selling bonds to finance the acquisition of Whole Foods, the linchpin to Jeff Bezos’s plan to conquer the supermarket business. The world’s largest online retailer is selling unsecured bonds in as many as seven parts, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The longest portion of the offering, a 40-year security, may yield 1.6 percentage points to 1.65 percentage points above US treasuries, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the deal is private. Amazon is selling bonds for the first time since 2014 to support the $13.7bn purchase of the organic-food chain, the company said in a statement, a deal that rattled the grocery world in June. The partnership is expected to reduce prices at Whole Foods, an iconic yet struggling high-end grocery chain trying to lure more low-and middle-income shoppers. The deal promises to further shake up an industry that has been in the midst of a price war to eke out razor-thin margins amid persistent gr...
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