What's going on?

We can add Africa to the list of regions where a mega-merger has fallen apart: Steinhoff and Shoprite, two African retail giants, announced on Monday that negotiations to merge had ended.

What does this mean?

Steinhoff, which started off by selling furniture, is the biggest retailer in South Africa. But it has been on a shopping spree of its own in recent years � both expanding and diversifying. The company acquired Conforama (which runs 200 home furnishing shops across Europe) in 2011; and bought the South African clothing retailer Pepkor in 2015 for close to $6 billion. And Steinhoff hasn�t slowed the pace of its expansion, with purchases outside of Africa, including Mattress Firm in the US and Poundland in the UK. This particular combination with Shoprite would have given it access to the South African grocery market. But this deal is now off, as the two companies could not reach an agreement.

Why should I care?

For markets: Both sets of shareholders seemed please.

The stock prices of both companies went up when investors learnt the deal was off. This suggests, perhaps, a few things: that Shoprite investors were worried about the deal undervaluing their company; that Steinhoff investors might prefer to see it focus on continued expansion outside of Africa; and/or that the proposed deal was too complex for shareholders� comfort.

The bigger picture: Not all �deals� end up being finalized.

This isn�t the first time that Steinhoff has looked at a deal and then walked away; for example, there was its aborted takeover of UK-based Argos last year. Or elsewhere, take the Kraft – Unilever deal that was ditched over a single weekend, or two recent big US health insurance takeovers that have been blocked by the courts. Just because a deal gets �announced,� doesn�t mean it will be completed.