Classic US snack maker Hostess Brands is being bought by rival food giant JM Smucker in a $5.6bn (£4.5bn) deal.
“With this acquisition, we are adding an iconic sweet snacking platform… to drive continued growth,” Smucker's chief executive Mark Smucker said in a statement. Shares in the firm known for brands including Twinkies, Donettes and Ho Hos jumped on the news.
Smucker is famous for its fruit preserves and Jif peanut butter. Some of America's biggest food brands – including PepsiCo, Oreo maker Mondelez International and Cheerios maker General Mills – were also reportedly interested in buying Hostess.
Smucker said it expects the deal to be completed in the third quarter of its current financial year. Hostess, which is based in the city of Lenexa, Kansas, makes several iconic household brands, including Ding Dongs, Zingers, and Voortman cookies and wafers.
The company, which currently has around 3,000 employees, can trace its roots back more than a century to when the first Hostess CupCake was sold. In 2012 Hostess filed for bankruptcy after failed talks with its workers' union left it financially unviable.
It was saved from bankruptcy in 2013 by investment firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. Four years after its near collapse, Hostess Brands returned to the stock market and is now listed on New York's Nasdaq trading platform.
Ohio-headquartered Smucker, which along with its jams and jellies also owns coffee and pet food brands, has a stock market valuation of around $14bn. The deal marks the latest big takeover this year in the US food manufacturing business.
Last month, Campbell's Soup announced it was buying Rao's pasta sauce owner Sovos Brands for $2.7bn. The month before that M&M's owner Mars acquired Kevin's Natural Foods, while consumer goods giant Unilever bought frozen yoghurt brand Yasso in June.
Hostess Brands shares ended the New York trading day up by more than 19%. JM Smucker shares closed 7% lower.
— CutC by bbc.com
