NEW YORK – Bloomberg is reporting that Dollar Tree may shed as many as 500 stores as part of it pending merger with Family Dollar. 

Dollar Tree expects to complete the financing for the merger in January 2015, and expects to complete the merger as early as February 2015, according to a company press release. Family Dollar shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Dollar Tree merger on December 23.

Meanwhile, larger dollar-store rival Dollar General Corp. is also in talks with the FTC to purchase Family Dollar. In September, Family Dollar shot down Dollar General’s $9.1 billion unsolicited bid because it claimed the antitrust risks were too high, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Dollar General said it would be willing to divest up to 1,500 stores, “but Family Dollar’s chief executive, Howard Levine, has said there is a ‘very real and material risk’ that Dollar General’s offer would fail to pass a lengthy regulatory process,” writes the Wall Street Journal. On Friday, Dollar Tree commented on the regulatory uncertainty of Dollar General’s bid, saying the FTC may require divestitures “far in excess” of the 1,500 stores Dollar General has said it would shed.