The New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Company has just announced a purchase agreement with Charlotte-based Snyder’s-Lance for $4.7 billion.
According to their press release, Campbells will be paying $50 per share to buy Snyder’s-Lance – a premium of approximately 27% above Snyder’s-Lance’s closing stock price on Dec. 13th – the last trading day before media reports started leaking the potential transaction. Today Snyder’s-Lance stock closed at $50.04 on the NASDAQ.
The purchase will allow Campbells to drastically expand their “Global Biscuits and Snacks division”, adding Snyder’s of Hanover, Lance, KETTLE chips, Cape Cod, Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps, Pop Secret, Emerald and Late July to Cambell’s current snacking lines of Pepperidge Farm, Arnott’s and Kelsen.
“The acquisition of Snyder’s-Lance will accelerate Campbell’s strategy and is in line with our Purpose, ‘real food that matters for life’s moments.’ It will provide our consumers with an even greater variety of better-for-you snacks. The combination of Snyder’s-Lance brands with Pepperidge Farm, Arnott’s and Kelsen will create a diversified snacking leader,” commented Denise Morrison, Campbell’s President and CEO. “This acquisition will dramatically transform Campbell, shifting our center of gravity and further diversifying our portfolio into the faster-growing snacking category.”
Campbells has not yet said if they will be making any layoffs at the Syder’s-Lance headquarters in Ballantyne, or if they will keep the Syder’s-Lance name.
Syder’s-Lance currently employs about 1,300 people in Ballantyne.
The deal is expected to close in the summer of 2018.