From BBC “Kraft and Cadbury: How they compare” (emphasis added),
The boards of Cadbury and US giant Kraft Foods have agreed a deal which will see Kraft takeover the British chocolate maker in a deal valuing the company at £11.5bn [~US$19.5 billion].
It means that the world’s second-biggest confectionery company will form part of the world’s second-largest food company. This is how the two firms currently stack up.
From NYT “Behind Kraft’s Raise, a Glimmer of Bigger Savings” (emphasis added),
Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft’s chief executive, partially justified the higher price on an analyst conference call by announcing that she expects her company to reap an extra $50 million in annual cost savings through the merger. That brings the total figure to $675 million.
At a standard 10 percent discount rate, Kraft was essentially authorized to spend around another $500 million today for Cadbury, which is a little less than a fifth of what they ended up shelling out extra for the company.
From NYT “For Britain, Cadbury Takeover Isn’t Easy to Swallow“,
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at a press conference that his government was “determined that the levels of investment that take place in Cadburys in the United Kingdom are maintained,” and, “at a time when people are worried about their jobs, that jobs in Cadbury can be secure.”
Cadbury employs 6,000 people in Great Britain, and more than 46,000 worldwide.
During its conference call Tuesday, Kraft reiterated that it would keep a strong presence in Britain and would be a “net importer” of jobs in the country.
And for those who has paid attention to the deal and Warren Buffett’s public opinion of the deal, Alice Schroeder (biographer of Buffett) made some insightful observations in “Buffett Orchestrates Kraft-Cadbury Deal” (emphasis added),
[…] why did Buffett make his announcement that Berkshire would vote against a deal that included more stock? Why didn’t he just tell Irene Rosenfeld that in private? Why set off a frenzy of rumors about a rift between the two of them?
True, lines drawn in the sand in public are taken more seriously than warnings made in private. And Buffett’s message was sent to all parties concerned – especially, perhaps, the arbs and Cadbury.
Posted in Business, Economics, investment, UK, united states, Warren Buffett, World 
