PetSmart planning to acquire Petco

According to media reports, the two pet store chain giants in the USA, Petco and PetSmart, have initiated preliminary talks about the acquisition of Petco by its fiercest competitor. If the two chains should merge to become one, experts believe that they would cover around 30 per cent of the U.S. pet speciality supplies market.
An earlier attempt at a merger failed to materialise after PetSmart went to a buyout consortium led by BC Partners for $8.7 billion. Petco, which belongs to private equity firms TPG Capital LP and Leonard Green & Partners LP, has been registered by its owners for an initial public offering of between $5 and 6 billion. Reports in the media suggest that the equity firms are also considering an outright sale of Petco.
How the talks will progress is impossible to predict. It is also uncertain whether the competition regulators in the USA would give this mega-deal between the two biggest pet store chains the go-ahead.