One of the biggest deals in the history of the snacking industry may be on the near horizon, according to new reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.
Anonymous sources close to the matter disclosed to the publications that the conglomerate Mars—which oversees a slate of brands in the petcare, food, and candy sectors—is in late-stage talks to acquire Kellanova, the company behind iconic snack brands including Pringles, Cheez-It, and Eggo. The deal could give Kellanova a valuation of around $30 billion.
Since trading opened this morning, Kellanova shares are up about 13% as investors learn of the potential deal, which was initially reported by Reuters early on Sunday.
The news comes just months after the cereal brand Kellogg separated into two separate companies last October: one called WK Kellogg Co, which sells cereal in North America and the Caribbean, and Kellanova, which is a global snack company with an extensive list of subsidiary brands. Reuters reported that shares of Kellanova had risen by around 20% since the separation, but were “still trading at a discount to some of its peers, such as Hershey and Mondelez International, making it a potential acquisition target.”
For its part, the family-owned business Mars reported a whopping $50 billion in total revenue in 2023, $18 billion of which came from its snacking division. It’s a daunting number considering that the chocolate industry is currently in decline due to a number of factors, chief of which include poor weather conditions in West Africa (which produces around 80% of the world’s cocoa crop) and larger structural issues that prevent smallholder farmers from improving conditions on their own land. This April, the antipoverty group Oxfam published a report during the World Cocoa Conference calling out both Mars and Ferrero for their disproportionately vast fortunes. The two companies’ wealth exceeds the combined GDPs of Ghana and Ivory Coast, where most cocoa beans are grown.
Despite the pushback, it appears that Mars intends to continue building its snacking portfolio if the proposed acquisition goes through.