Corporate love triangle: Dollar General, Dollar Tree argue over Family Dollar

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Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling

Dollar General and Dollar Tree waged war via press release today, as both pursue the same major acquisition: Family Dollar.

North Carolina-based Family Dollar has an agreement to merge with Dollar Tree for $8.5 billion. Dollar General, meanwhile, is attempting a $9.1 billion hostile bid.

Most of the sniping thus far has occurred between Dollar General and Family Dollar, which has claimed Dollar General's bid is doomed to be blocked by the Federal Trade Commission. Today, Dollar Tree sounded similar notes.

In a news release, Dollar Tree said Dollar General's bid "may ultimately fail" because the FTC may require it to sell more than the 1,500 stores the retailer has said it is willing to let go of.

"Even if Dollar General is able to negotiate an acceptable divestiture number with the FTC, Dollar General may be unable to find and reach an agreement with an independent divestiture buyer or buyers who are acceptable to the FTC and willing to contractually commit to acquire so many stores on terms acceptable to Dollar General, the buyer or buyers, and the FTC," Dollar Tree said.

Dollar General quickly returned fire with its own news release, in which the company said its " documents and data tell a very different story."

"Walmart, not Family Dollar, is the primary driver regarding Dollar General's strategic pricing decisions," Dollar General said. "Dollar General is confident that its approach to strategic and pricing decisions is both correct and superior to that of Family Dollar and Dollar General has no intention of adopting a flawed strategy -- either now or after an acquisition ofFamily Dollar -- that it believes would impair its ability to compete with Walmart and lead to inferior financial performance."