Campbell's Pricey Deal May Land Its CEO in the Soup

Campbell Soup Co.'s biggest acquisition hasn't received much fanfare among shareholders, and now the debt market is wincing, too. As if CEO Denise Morrison didn't have enough on her plate, it's looking more likely that she'll need to keep a lookout for unwanted bidders sensing vulnerability, or activists calling for a change at the top.

Campbell just sold $5.3 billion of bonds to fund its takeover of Snyder's-Lance Inc., which owns snack brands including Snyder's of Hanover pretzels, Kettle chips and Pop Secret popcorn. Normally in a debt sale for an investment-grade issuer like Campbell, the bonds would price at a tighter spread to Treasuries than where they were initially marketed to investors, but not in this case, Bloomberg News's Brian Smith pointed out Wednesday. Instead, the bonds weakened after they were sold, another sign that Morrison's message -- that the snacks acquisition is a "remarkable transformation" of Campbell's growth prospects -- is being met with skepticism.