Kraft Foods happy to play the waiting game
The £10 billion offer for Cadbury by Kraft Foods has been rejected by the Cadbury's board and while Kraft Foods is by no means finished the company is happy to play a waiting game. Rather than rush out a bid to shareholders and let them decide the fate of the company Kraft Foods looks likely to sit on the sidelines for the moment and let the market digests news of the £10 billion offer.
While it seems highly unlikely that the £10 billion offer will be successful there are many in the market who believe the fit between Cadbury's and Kraft Foods is near-perfect. While other third parties are expected to join the fray at some point, if nothing more than as a spoiling tool, there is a feeling that Kraft Foods will in due course increase its offer and try to gain a recommendation of acceptance from the board.
It will be interesting to see how this particular saga rolls out because this is by far and away the largest takeover in the UK for some time and appears to have, at least in the short term, taken the attention away from the recession. The market has reacted positively over the last couple of days but will it continue?
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