Seven Robinsons-May and two Macy’s department stores in Los Angeles County will close as a result of Federated Department Stores Inc.’s acquisition of rival May Department Stores Co., the company announced Thursday.

The closures, which total more than 20 throughout Southern California and 68 nationwide, are the first casualties of Federated’s $11 billion acquisition of May, and include locations where the merged company would have two competing stores.

Robinsons-May stores will be closed in the Del Amo Fashion Center, Torrance; Westfield Fox Hills, Culver City; Glendale Galleria, Glendale; Los Cerritos Center, Cerritos; Northridge Fashion Center, Northridge; Santa Anita Fashion Park, Arcadia; and Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica.

Also to be closed are Macy’s at the Lakewood Center in Lakewood and in West Covina.

Federated said it planned to operate the stores under their existing nameplates through the holiday shopping season and begin closing stores next year. The company reiterated a previous statement that there would be no workforce reduction at May stores prior to March next year.

Throughout the country, the stores slated to be closed account for about $2 billion of 2004 sales, less than 7 percent of the combined May and Federated sales that year. Federated will operate 730 stores across the country when the closures are completed.

The closures will force mall landlords to fill thousands of square feet of retail space once occupied by anchor tenants. Big-box retailers such as Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. Inc. could be likely additions to the malls, which also could choose to fill the spaces with smaller specialty retail locations.

The acquisition has yet to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission and the closures have been expected as part of an effort to gain that approval.