The Wall Street Journal reported in June that Mondelez made a roughly $23 billion bid for Hershey, a tie-up that would create the world’s largest candy maker.
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Mondelez is disappointed that the attempted takeover fell through, but it had “determined that there is no actionable path forward toward an agreement with Hershey”, according to the announcement.
Mondelez International said Monday it has ended efforts to buy The Hershey Co.
Rosenfeld had been chairman and CEO of Mondelez predecessor Kraft since 2007, and kept those titles at Mondelez, the worldwide side of the business, after Kraft split itself in two.
However, when news of a potential acquisition by Mondelez first broke in July, shares of Hershey took off, noted Adami. It would have combined Mondelez’s Nabisco, Oreo and Cadbury brands with Hershey’s namesake chocolates, Reese’s and Kisses. It said at the time that the offer provided “no basis for further discussion”. Mondelez was down.05% to $43.04 a share when markets closed, but up 3.62% to $44.60 in after hours trading.
The deal was seen as complementary in part because Mondelez gets most of its revenue from overseas, while Hershey gets most of its revenue from North America.
The news comes a month after the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office unveiled the terms of a reform agreement with the charitable trust that controls Hershey.
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Long Island native Rosenfeld was likely restrained from making a sweeter offer by board member and shareholder activist Nelson Peltz, who is not so interested in protecting Rosenfeld, but instead in raising Mondelez’s share price, a food banker said.
