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Are you saying that you have dumped both Kraft and Cadbury from your Portfolio?

Robert,

You would have to be a fruit and nut case not to see that Krafty Buffett is in cahoots with the board of directors - they're just trying to get Cadbury on the cheap. Let's hope they stay independent and keep all those hard working, salt of the earth brummies in employment.Cadbury and Bournville are national institutions and should be preserved as such.

Nuts to Buffett!

Sounds like good news for the UK then, if the yanks dont have to cash why on earth would Cadbury wants its new owners to saddle it with massive debt?

Glad to see companies no longer being able to borrow huge sums to enable to try & decimate the competition. It would have been a bad deal for consumers long run as costs would undoubtably risen & staff lay offs would have been inevitable.

Err...so where is the article about the `Financial chill sweeping football`?

Bit of a come-down, isn't it Robert ? Not so long ago you were bringing the economy to its knees with exclusives about troubled banks and now you're reporting about this.

Any one want to start a book on how long the current Kraft management will still be in their jobs?

Nevermind the conspiracy theories, looks like the Sage of Omaha has simply said this is not a deal for Kraft to do. Other companies could come in and make offers or alternatively Cadbury could simply stay independent

Just a point of order if I may. Berkshire Hathaway was not founded by Warren Buffet. Berkshire Hathaway came about from a merger of two textile firms in 1955. Both had histories dating back into the 19th century. Buffet started buying shares in the company in 1962, some 7 years later.

Paul

There is already uncertainty over whether Hershey or Ferrero have the resources to table a counter-bid.

Now, with apparent internal unease over Kraft's offer - the only one on the table - the odds have shifted, ever so slightly, towards Cadbury staying independent.

This is apparently a link to football's financial crisis and when I clicked on it I find myself reading about Cream eggs!

I clicked on this link from the football page, what the hell has Chocolate got to with football ?

hypothetical scenario. When you turn off the telly does the news stop? So if you turn the telly off for a good few years what happens when you turn it on again?

#3. At 5: sirHellsBells wrote:
Sounds like good news for the UK then, if the yanks dont have to cash why on earth would Cadbury wants its new owners to saddle it with massive debt?

++++++++

Are you saying this will not be a 'leveraged buyout'?

4, 9, 10
Maybe Kraft are going to take over Everton?!

sorry why is this in the sports section?

Anyone looking for the football article - it is the Can Man Utd Spend link below under 'more from this blog'. ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have obviously not changed the link when the article changed...

re: 13
Sorry, if Toffees was too obtuse.

Maybe, as it's Berkshire Hathaway, I should have said Reading FC?!
(now the Royals, but previous nickname was the Biscuitmen - after the Huntley & Palmers factory).

So have Kraft bought out Watford or cadbury bought out Wigan ---where's the football comment --this is on the football link???!!!

Buffett is no fool. To ignores him is a making a bold move.The deal is dead folks!

Robert Peston:

I have a feeling, that Cadbury will not remain independent that, much longer......

-Dennis Junior

I think it would be a tragedy if Cadbury shareholders succumed to pressure from Kraft in their bid to take over. There is very little industry left in this country that is anything to be proud of, why hand it over to the Americans?

Hmm? so thats why watford almost went into administration. It's all because warren buffet isn't that keen on chocolate. Maybe if he was a fan of cadburys cream eggs then they would be the new man city..... Read between the lines people, this is a revelation, well almost!

Never the less, good article! Now where's the one about footy?

Oh Robert,

Some of the football comments are hilarious, such brilliant humour.

Haway the lads lol.

Don't go footie fans, you fit in real well, around here.

pssssssst I've got some NUFC shares tucked away somewhere - the paper type that were issued before that Ashley man took over. Are they worth anything?

Cheers !

It's the milk ...stupid!

Kraft wouldn't find it easy to pull Cadbury's out of the UK and sack everyone and the 'penny's dropped' with the 'financier'

Go after Man Utd instead - then the players can all run around with 'Cadbury's' on their shirts!

Your NUFC shares are worth as much as a governments promise, Ashley took them off the stock market when he purchased the club.

Regarding a leveraged buy out, yes that would be a possibility but my point was that the ability to raise the capital in harder in 2010 than it would have been in 2007, which is good news for Cadbury's.

The company makes nice chocolate, employs a large number of people in this country, pays its taxes & makes a profit, just because someone thinks buy saddling themselves with $10 billion worth of debt to buy a company is a good idea doesnt mean their shareholders or banks will.

As I say in the world of profit & money are kings then it might happen but my hope for this recession/depression is people will realise that chasing the money isnt always the right path.

It would be devastating to lose another British business when we are already facing an uncertain future.

It sounds to me like Warren Buffet has no real interest in Cadbury but does want to increase his stake in Kraft as minimal cost, if he can sow public dissent in an unpopular takeover (whilst in the background seeming to push the Kraft management in this direction) then Kraft shares will fall and he can scoop up more for less and put his own people in charge.
If this merger doesn't go through then the current management will look like dummies and Buffet can move in and strip the assets, move production to the far east and sell it on as a hollowed out shell to some unsuspecting investors.
I'd mark Kraft as Hold then Buy if shares drop.

As for Cadbury, well after last years fiasco over witholding consumer information as to the dodginess or otherwise of their leading products...I would have sold long ago.

Management, rubbish or what ?

Daylight robbery then ?

Sounds familiar.

Oh dear... This will upset the Great Leader.. He wants to completely eliminate UK industrial ownership so his chums in the City won't be distracted from creating new bubbles.

Re: 28
The great Leader - Roman Abramovich you mean?
Eliminate UK ownership? Already happened Guv - no British managers at the top and its all foreign money!
City? Man City? Surely not Lincoln?!!!!
New Bubbles - maybe he means West Ham?!!
I dunno - makes no sense to me.....

I think what Berkshire Hathaway is expressing frustration about is that they don't see enough profit for them from the deal. The Kraft share price was $33 (during the buyback) and now at $27 means that any current Berkshire Hathaway share stake in Kraft has declined in real terms and what is Kraft going to do about it for their benefit? Maybe this major investor bought Kraft shares at the wrong time believing the spin at that time (tee hee)!

If there was a cash alternative Berkshire Hathaway (as a shareholder in Cadbury)and those others that don't have faith in the Kraft board's (ability to increase their own share price) could take the cash. So it is code for put a cash option on the table as we have no confidence in the Kraft board. If the banks won't back the deal why should the shareholders?

Kraft were only showing that they are still big to their own shareholders. It was more about ego than business.
And Warren Buffet seems to agree with me.
His normal buying practice is to buy low a trading company they build slowly.
The Hershey deal is more about putting off this type of asset buying so both firms still trade.

And in some ways Kraft did not know what it was trying to buy.

Since Cadbury plans to close its Keynsham factory and move production to Poland, who cares?

If it has no loyalty to the work force that has enriched the company over so many years, why should we care if it's taken over?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Saying that bankers pay tax doesn't wash with me.

For decades, the F.I.R.E. sector, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate has been sucking increasing energy, wealth and vigour from the 'real' economy, so the paltry (relative) tax that banks and their employees pay back, is simply an insulting token.

Shunting money around by speculating and gambling, selling futures on commodities so that nations go hungry, playing with currencies, ruining stock in viable companies to make a quick (huge) buck is not wealth creation, but destruction, plain and simple.

I am ashamed of a culture that toadies to these bloodsuckers.