Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Wednesday, October 19, 2016:

Kroger Said to Backing Out of Acquiring 650 Walgreen's Stores; Walgreen's-Rite Aid Merger in Jeopardy

The Rumor:

Kroger KR is said to be close to pulling out of a deal to acquire 650 Walgreens WBA stores that need to be disposed of prior to gaining regulatory approval for Walgreens merger with Rite Aid RAD, according to sources as reported by the NY Post on Wednesday. A Walgreen spokesperson declined comment to Benzinga regarding the report.

Rite Aid closed at $6.66 on Wednesday, down 5.13%. Walgreen fell 1.15% to close at $77.18

Hearing Takeover Chatter in Michael Kors

The Rumor:
Shares of Michael Kors KORS rose to a high of $50.33 Wednesday, following a report from Intereconomica.com that the men's and women's apparel company has received an offer of around $55.50 per share, or $10 billion, according to sources. The report said the offer was substantially lower than the price targets of some analysts.

Michael Kors closed at $50.10 on Wednesday, up 5.43%.

Tableau Software Worked on a Potential Sale in Recent Month

The Rumor:
Tableau Software DATA considered a potential sale recently, according to sources as reported by Dow Jones on Wednesday. The talks, which took place as late as this summer, stalled out. Tableau appeared on a list of companies that were considered to be potential takeover targets of Salesforce.com Inc CRM. The list was found in an email from former Secretary of State and board member Colin Powell and appeared on the DCLeaks website.

A spokesperson for Tableau declined comment on the report, while a Salesforce spokesperson said her company did not necessarily have an intention to buy the companies on the list.

Tableau Software closed Wednesday at $48.91, up 3.56%.

Imperva Sales Process on Hold

The Rumor:
Shares of Imperva IMPV sold off sharply Wednesday, on a report from Bloomberg that the company's sales process is on hold as it looks for a higher offer, according to sources. Among the companies said to have approached Imperva are IBM IBM, Cisco CSCO, Akamai AKAM, Fortinet FTNT and Raytheon RTN.

Imperva closed Wednesday at $39.20, down 15.97%.