KEY POINTS:
Once again, the Commerce Commission has delayed its decision on whether or not to let Woolworths Australia or Foodstuffs buy The Warehouse.
The commission has now deferred the decision four times and taken more than five months to do even that much. On Thursday night, the watchdog either refused or was unable to say whether it would make a decision on the following day.
Instead - with staff and management at The Warehouse, Foodstuffs and Woolworths on tenterhooks, and investors anxious for news - the commission waited until 9.22am yesterday to say it had once again failed to meet its own deadline.
It is understood the commissioners, led by chairwoman Paula Rebstock, met on Wednesday to deliberate, but as we all now know, reached an impasse.
From the outsider's point of view, the deliberations are starting to look like a farce.
What's so difficult?
The commission has two decisions to make.
Firstly, it has to define the relevant markets. On the face of it, this shouldn't be too difficult, as the grocery sector is hardly complicated.
Secondly, it must decide whether letting either Foodstuffs or Woolworths buy The Warehouse would result in "a substantial lessening of competition" in that market.
Five months seems like an awfully long time, even if the commission is delving deeply into regional grocery markets.
Meanwhile, Woolworths and Foodstuffs are caught in limbo - not knowing whether they'll be able to have a tilt at The Warehouse or have to look elsewhere for expansion opportunities.
Investors, too, whose Warehouse shares are being propped up by hopes (fast diminishing) of a bidding war for the company, are also frustrated at the delay. They need all the information they can get before they can make an informed decision about what to do with their shares.
But things are probably worst at The Warehouse itself.
Morale at the retailer is said to be at rock bottom as staff wonder about their future.
It's mainly executives who are affected - after any takeover there would be some rationalisation of the executive ranks, to say the least.
One or two have already left, and some distribution staff, the backbone of any retail operation, have also departed.
With each subsequent delay, the commission raises the stakes and further risks its credibility.
If its ruling on June 2 - if it doesn't delay again - is overturned by the courts, it would be a huge embarrassment for the competition regulator, having spend so long ruminating on this decision.
And the commission, under-resourced as it is, faces an opponent with a sharemarket value of A$33 billion ($37.23 billion), in Woolworths. The Australian supermarket giant has deep pockets the commission won't be able to match.
But that's all in the future - whenever the commission decides to let it happen.
