Tara Lachapelle, Columnist

Sausage Is In, Cereal Is Out

Post Holdings' grab for faster-growing Bob Evans may not be the last such deal we'll see in the food industry this year.
Photographer: Tom Lynn/Getty Images
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Bob Evans Farms Inc.'s shareholders had their eggs -- and now they get a nest egg.

The maker of refrigerated breakfast sandwiches, side dishes and sausages announced Tuesday that it secured a $1.5 billion takeover offer from Post Holdings Inc., marking the culmination of a delicious activist-investor-driven breakup. In January, the Bob Evans restaurant chain agreed to a $565 million takeover by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital, which left the food-manufacturing business as its own publicly traded company and one that Gadfly flagged as ripe for an acquisition by Post or others. Now that portion is getting swallowed, too.