Rite Aid Corporation (RAD) and Fred’s Inc. (FRED) investors awoke to some most unfortunate news. Instead of a miraculous and low probability FTC approval, they were instead greeted with the news that RAD’s management accepted yet another less favorable revised deal in lieu of two previously agreed upon deals. Notwithstanding, at least in hindsight, the obvious antitrust concerns given that this deal was original announced on October 27, 2015, and today is June 29, 2017, the retail landscape has dramatically shifted from challenging to formidable given the dominance of Amazon and its long shadowed that has been cast on the entire brick and mortar landscape. In fact, even some very sophisticated investors that specialize in M&A arbitrage were long RAD, as its shares were trading the low $8s, after the calendar turned from 2016 to 2017. This is yet another reminder that there are no free lunches when it comes to life or investing. I have learned this lesson through experience myself. I can assure that the cost of tuition at the vicarious investing school is much less than at the school of hard knocks, when your own capital is lost.

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