I see The Times business section today ran a piece on the front page of its business section about Nestle buying Lily's Kitcken, the upmarket pet food brand.
Now that won't come as much of surprise to regular followers of my work as I first broke the news of Lily's Kitchen hiring advisers late last year in the Mail on Sunday's business section. See below:..
Unsurprisingly, I have had a few people on the blower whinging about my Mead Johnson story from March following yesterday's news about Danone agreeing a deal to buy WhiteWave for $12.5 billion.
In case you don't recall, I revealed in mid-March that Mead Johnson had begun working with the sharp suited types from Lazard following interest from Nestle and Danone...
Hat tip to hacks Arash Massoudi and James Fontanella-Kahn over the Financial Times for landing the scoop overnight about Danone's $12.5 billion acquisition of health food specialist WhiteWave Foods. The deal was subsequently announced this morning.
I suspect Danone's purchase of Whitewave means any potential acquistion of baby food maker Mead Johnson by Danone is likely to be off the table for quite some time...