General Mills’ Acquisition of Pillsbury from Diageo Plc Essay

For calculations of the acquisition price, the P/E is taken to be 8.6. The acquisition price is calculated by multiplying this value with the historical average of net income. Thus, the acquisition price comes out to be $186,215,800, which is $189,186,673 less than the enterprise value.

The first step I need to take in developing a sourcing strategy is to conduct an assessment of General Mills current spending. According to General Mills’ Annual Report, the payments due in 2014 are $3,844,200. This amount includes long term debt, accrued interest, operating leases, capital leases, and purchase obligations. At this time, General Mills can expect to spend $2,730.70 on cocoa each month.

This results from the fact that it is a mature segment with many well established companies vying for market share. The industry is highly consolidated and very fragmented. To grow their businesses, companies rely heavily on mergers and acquisitions to capture additional market share. Historically, the grocery industry has been characterized by slow growth which results in strong price competition and the development of aggressive marketing campaigns between existing firms. Perceived product quality and strong brand recognition by consumers are the basis of competition among firms in the industry. The source of General Mills’ competitive advantage lies in its ability to develop innovative products and highly reputable brands. As a result, they hold cost leadership positions across a number of grocery categories. Exhibit 1 shows the top US companies according to their sale of packaged foods globally. Market leaders include Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Nestle, Mars, Kellogg, and General Mills, however, neither company possess an overwhelming share of global sales. This is in part due to the large degree of product diversity throughout the industry and the strong brand rivalry of each competitor’s labels.

4. On the assumption that the Cooper management wants to acquire at least 80% of the outstanding Nicholson stock and to make the same offer to all stockholders, what offer must Cooper management make – in terms of dollar value and the form of payment (cash, stock, debt)?

In 1978 Pillsbury, a company that specialized in baking goods acquired the Green Giant Company to expand their market and

a. What is the nature of General Mills' business? That is, based on what you know about the company and on the accompanying financial statements, how does General Mills make money?

General Mills (NYSE:GIS), our company, is a global consumer foods company. We develop distinctive value-added food products and market with our unique brand names. We work continuously to improve our established products and to create new products that meet our customers’ potential needs and preferences. Our company has $14.88 billion in sales last year. Our sales has grown substantially throughout the years due in large part to our popular brand names, this however is only part of the reason that we has been so successful. We markets global brands such as Green Giant, Old El Paso, Häagen-Dazs, Yoplait, Cheerios, Betty

The Pillsbury Cookie Challenge is a case study written by Natalie Mauro under the supervision of Professor Allison Johnson. The case study creates an open discussion about what the marketing manager of the refrigerated baked goods category for Canada General Mills should do to revive his products. Ivan Guillen, the marketing manager, was faced with tough challenges. He was initially “…faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that would lead to improved business performance on his category” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). To clarify, Guillen’s category is refrigerated baked goods (RBG), which means, this category is his marketing responsibility. The issue here is that “RBG was GMCC’s fourth largest category, and its performance over the past two years had been less than stellar” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). It is important to note that GMCC stands for General Mills Canada Corporation. Pillsbury has enjoyed majority market share in the RBG category in Canada, however, recently, the market was experiencing only moderate growth. Guillen was disappointed that their goal of 5%-7% market growth was not being achieved mainly in the refrigerated cookie dough segment. To be exact, their volume growth for two years was flat and they were having difficulty reaching new households. There was a shift among consumer’s purchases, which Guillen was challenged to figure out why.

As marketing manager of the RBG business, Ivan Guillen must propose a solution to repair Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RGB)’s business performance. Since the refrigerated-cookie product line consisted of 62% of RBG’s unit sales and over 75% of the company’s profits, Guillen found it appropriate to alter this segment in the market. Proposing this idea to GMCC would require Guillen to consider all the challenges he faces. Guillen will have to discover a strategy to increase household penetration since it has fallen to 24% in the past few years. The lack in market penetration has

3. Why is Ben & Jerry’s a takeover target? Is there evidence that investors are dissatisfied?

Grand Metropolitan PLC is the world’s largest wine and spirits seller. It mainly operated in London, USA. In 1991, it beats market expectation with a 4.8% increase in pretax profits, and the company Chairman stated that company’s goal “to constantly improve on”. Despite the great performance in the world recession in 1991, the price of GrandMet shares was 10% below the average price/earnings ratio of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. And more important, rumors had that GrandMet, valued at more than $14 billion in the stock market, maybe a takeover target. The management dilemma is to understand why the company’s stock is traded below of what considered being the right price and whether the company is truly

Buying out a partner from a company has to reflect the current and potential viability of any company. This means that the Peterson and Scott have to evaluate the company to come up with the asking price to present

After discussed all these details, we came back to the final offer price. We offered a higher one as exchange rate 0.6. Amoco rejected. Finally, after they thoughtful discussion they offered 0.66 exchange rate or price 52.965 as their final offer, which for us is lower than our walk-away price 65.94. Therefore, we accepted this offer and we both reach our goals to reach the deal and build a good relationship with the other management team.

A prospective buyer has to consider the motives and financial positions of other bidders. Kohlberg wants to buyout the company in order to turn it into a private firm. ARCO has a pretty strict limit in what it can offer because of its highly leveraged position. Even if a company has the ability to take out a larger loan to make a greater offer, it has to consider the consequences of doing so. While a company like Socal has unrestricted credit, its decisions as to how to operate the company after the buyout are very limited. Creating a lot of debt in order to finance the purchase is a large risk. If the company does not perform well in the future it could face tremendous loss. In this case, a bid of $80 per share would be appropriate for an un-leveraged company like Socal. This would be enough to win Gulf while still leaving breathing room for shareholders. Taxes do not need to be considered, because the benefits cancel out the

b) the nature of takeover (it can be considered as “Insider Trading”, and to avoid litigation by shareholders, an acquirer may need to pay premium)