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- <text id=90TT1724>
- <title>
- July 02, 1990: Business Notes:Mergers
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 02, 1990 Nelson Mandela:A Hero In America
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 49
- Business Notes
- MERGERS
- Chow Time for Philip Morris
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Hunger pains seem to come regularly for Philip Morris, the
- food-and-tobacco giant. Although it acquired General Foods in
- 1985 and Kraft in 1988, the company (1989 revenues: $44.8
- billion) was still on the lookout for new morsels. Last week
- Philip Morris said it agreed to spend $3.8 billion to gobble
- up Zurich-based Jacobs Suchard AG, the world's third largest
- producer of coffee and confections. Among Suchard's best-known
- brands: Tobler chocolate.
- </p>
- <p> The Swiss firm apparently was agreeable to a takeover
- because its chairman, Klaus Jacobs, had incurred $500 million
- in debt when he bought out his family's interest in the
- company. That burden was aggravated by rising European interest
- rates and slumping profits. For Philip Morris, whose 3,000
- consumer brands range from Miller Lite beer to Marlboro
- cigarettes, the takeover means a stronger presence in Europe
- and further diversification out of tobacco.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-