Consumer
Mondelez Has Plenty of Reasons to Try Again to Buy Hershey
- An earlier Mondelez bid in 2016 was blocked by Hershey’s Trust
- Today the companies face higher costs, industry consolidation
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Mondelez International Inc.’s latest overture to Hershey Co. underscores the challenges posed by sky-high cocoa prices and penny-pinching consumers, which could make the chocolate company more open to a deal than it was eight years ago.
Bloomberg reported this week that Mondelez made a preliminary approach about a possible combination. A deal would create a food group with combined sales of almost $50 billion and present a bigger challenge to Mars Inc., the world’s leading confectionery maker. The matter is largely up to the Hershey Trust, which controls roughly 80% of the company’s voting shares.