Announced Actions for July 25, 2006

Commission approval of petition to reopen and modify final order:

– Following a public comment period, the Commission has approved a petition from Koninklijke Ahold N.V. requesting that the FTC reopen and modify a final decision and order dated January 16, 2002. Under the order, Ahold, a global food service distributor and retailer headquartered in the Netherlands, was permitted to acquire all of the outstanding voting stock of Bruno’s Supermarkets, Inc., a large supermarket chain in the southeastern United States, provided it met certain conditions.

Specifically, among other things, the order required Ahold to divest 2 BI-LO supermarkets, one in Milledgeville and one in Sandersville, Georgia, to Kroger and Winn-Dixie, respectively. Under the order, Ahold also must notify the Commission, for 10 years from the date the order became final, prior to acquiring any supermarkets (or supermarket interests) in Baldwin and Washington counties, Georgia. In its petition, Ahold stated that in 2005 it sold all of its supermarket assets in the areas covered by the order to Lone Star U.S. Acquisitions, LLC, and that, therefore, it no longer owns or operates any supermarket assets in these areas. Consequently, Ahold requested that the Commission vacate the order insofar as it relates to Ahold. The FTC has now done so.

The Commission vote approving the petition was 5-0. (FTC File No. 011-0247, Docket No. C-4027; the staff contact is Elizabeth A. Piotrowski, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2623; see press releases dated December 7, 2001; and April 18, 2006.)

Commission approval of modified final consent order:

– Following a public comment period, the Commission has approved a modified final consent order in the matter of Boston Scientific Corporation and Guidant Corporation. The one substantive modification concerns Paragraph VI.B.5 of the order, which relates to Boston Scientific’s ability to obtain non-public information from Cameron Health, Inc., which it has an option to acquire. It changes the paragraph from reading, in part: “BSC shall not exercise its rights to obtain information from Cameron pursuant to Section 5.6 of the Agreement and Plan of Merger and 6.7 of the Securities Purchase Agreement,” to “BSC shall not exercise its rights to obtain information from Cameron pursuant to Section 5.6 of the Agreement and Plan of Merger and 6.7 of the Securities Purchase Agreement, or Paragraph 7.5 of each Cameron Convertible Promissory Note to Boston Scientific executed (or to be executed) before BSC exercises its option to acquire Cameron.”

The Commission vote to make the order final was 4-0, with Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour recused. Copies of the modified final order are available now on the FTC’s Web site as a link to this press release. (FTC File No. 061-0046; the staff contact is Michael Moiseyev, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-3106; see press release dated April 20, 2006.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.