With 7-Eleven on buyout menu, Japanese owner Seven & i reaches crossroads

TOKYO -- In May this year, Japan's Seven & i Holdings celebrated 50 years of flagship 7-Eleven stores in its domestic market, with thoughts turning to how it might develop the world's biggest convenience retail chain over the next five decades.

Just three months on, management at the retailer with a market value of $38 billion is already at a crossroads: Accept an ambitious, preliminary takeover approach from Canadian peer Alimentation Couche-Tard; encourage the Japanese government to block it on economic-security grounds; or walk away and risk the ire of already-restless activist investors and even a hostile bid.