Buying chocolatier Hershey looks like a nutty idea. Mondelez International, the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury Dairy Milk bars, may nonetheless give it a shot some eight years after a previous bid failed. Crunching the numbers leaves a bitter taste. There is strategic logic to the approach, which Bloomberg reported on Monday. Rival confectioner Mars is poised to get bigger following its agreed $36 billion acquisition, including debt, of salty-snacks seller Kellanova. Moreover, anti-obesity drugs present a long-term threat to the consumption of unhealthy food, while the high price of cocoa and other supplies is pressuring the bottom line. Hershey’s gross margin

As the biggest U.S. retailer, Walmart is a bellwether for the American consumer. As a big importer of Chinese goods, it’s also an indicator of how financial markets are thinking about incoming President Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs. The company’s quarterly results released on Tuesday – and the reaction of shareholders – suggest investors are betting it can weather another outbreak of trade hostilities. The $700 billion company said revenue for the quarter ending October increased 6% year-over-year to $170 billion. More people, especially those in higher-income brackets, are shopping at Walmart’s stores, and on its website: e-commerce sales popped by more

  French fries work better as a side dish than a standalone meal. The same goes for Lamb Weston, one of the biggest suppliers of frozen potatoes to restaurants and supermarkets. Pressure from pushy Jana Partners could spark changes, but the best option is a sale to a more diversified company. Lamb Weston owes its standalone status to Jana, which pressed Conagra Brands to offload it. The campaign, which led to the 2016 spinoff to shareholders, lends the hedge fund manager some credibility: without spuds separated, investors in the owner of brands such as Chef Boyardee would have been starved for

Alimentation Couche-Tard’s voracious dealmaking appetite faces its biggest test. The company, which opened its first convenience store in Quebec 44 years ago, has swallowed 75 rivals at a total cost of around $18 billion since 1996, according to Dealogic data. But its latest target, Japan’s Seven & i, is a much bigger gulp. Success will depend on Couche-Tard learning from the deals that got away. Unlike many acquisition addicts, Couche-Tard’s purchases tend to pay off. According to TD Cowen analysts, synergies from six of its biggest past deals were higher than initially expected. That helped the $52 billion company’s shares

Walt Disney is under attack for being a monopoly. If only it had that much pricing power. Two recent arrangements showcase the $160 billion media giant trying to exercise control of its content. The trouble for Disney is that competition is steep, and customers have plenty of other places to go. On Sunday, DirecTV users could not access any of the Magic Kingdom’s channels, including broadcast station ABC and sports network ESPN. The pay-TV provider and Disney are locked in a licensing dispute that has impacted some 11 million subscribers just before the National Football League kicks off its opening matchup

If Dollar General is having a hard time, imagine how its customers must feel. Shares of the $20 billion low-cost U.S. retailer fell 25% on Thursday after it cut its sales forecasts and reported second quarter earnings that didn’t meet expectations. Chief Executive Todd Vasos painted a troubling picture of the low-income group that make up the lion’s share of the company’s shoppers, and a sizeable chunk of the U.S. population. It’s not that the company is having too hard a time attracting customers. Sales rose to $10 billion in the second quarter, 4% more than the same quarter last year. More

Walmart is different, and not just because it’s so big. The nearly $600 billion chain’s quarterly sales and profit defied the gloom gathering over consumers and retailers. Boss Doug McMillon shrugged off such concerns, a sentiment that proved contagious. What works for the Walton family, however, doesn’t necessarily work for America. The company’s core strength is now groceries. In the United States, Walmart claims 30% of a market that also includes Kroger and other grocers, according to investment bank Solomon Partners. Customers are less fickle about their food shopping than their restaurant or home-renovation spending. And unlike so many other vendors, Walmart didn’t charge more to

Johnson Controls International and Bosch are looking at the same business and seeing entirely different things. To the $50 billion U.S. conglomerate, it’s selling residential heating and air conditioning operations that swing with the economic times and distract from more highly valued commercial customers. The German industrial giant envisions an exciting growth opportunity. This perception gap bodes poorly for Europe. Bosch said on Tuesday it would buy two operations from Johnson Controls for $8.1 billion, including debt. About $4.6 billion relates to a North American unit whose machines circulate air through homes. The rest goes toward a similar international joint venture 40%

GameStop’s actual business – selling video games and associated paraphernalia – isn’t doing so hot. Its other business – earning interest on cash that was handed over irrationally – is helping. But that makes GameStop more akin to a bank than a retailer. Shareholders would be better off sticking with an actual savings account. After a years-long slide took its market value as low as $180 million in 2020, GameStop’s shares rocketed up 20-fold in early 2021 to touch over $80 apiece. Though sinking since to $23 per share, the company’s market capitalization now stands at around $8 billion. On

Being an Oscar Mayer wiener no longer guarantees love, as the storied brand’s long-running jingle professed. Multiple owners attest to just how fickle consumers, CEOs and shareholders can be. As Kraft Heinz explores a sale of the hot-dog, bacon and bologna maker, it offers a glimpse into changing financial tastes. The U.S.-based food giant hired advisers to help it consider offloading Oscar Mayer, according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s a sensible decision after $44 billion Kraft Heinz told investors earlier this year it was relegating the business to a lower shelf of no-growth, low profitability items to focus instead on stronger

Dealmakers might be emerging from their bleary post-pandemic technology hangover. Though stock prices for companies like digital consultancy Perficient have sagged for some time, buyouts have been sparse as private equity recovers from a high-priced binge. If Perficient’s $3 billion sale to buyout shop EQT on Sunday is any indication, it could be time to pick up the pieces. The exit from Covid-19’s depths saw a giddy rebound for tech firms. The BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index spiked 75% between March 2020 and 2022. Delirious optimism attracted private equity firms stocked with mountains of dry powder and cheap debt. Information

Marc Benioff’s taste for expansion turned Salesforce into a $265 billion giant. These same urges also led the software company into a series of ill-advised acquisitions and underperformance, prompting a swarm of activist investors to demand a makeover. A mooted purchase of $11 billion rival Informatica may show whether Benioff has changed his ways. Starboard Value, ValueAct Capital, Third Point, Elliott Investment Management and others had good reason to push for change at Salesforce when they acquired stakes in 2022 and early 2023. The company had spent over $50 billion in five years on questionable deals. Operating margins were a quarter of