Unilever Remains Cool to Kraft Heinz Takeover Bid Despite Rally

Bloomberg.com took an opportunity to discuss the potential merger being discussed between Kraft Heinz and Unilever. Kraft Heinz made an official offer for a $143 billion buyout, which was perceived as lacking merit and established a basis to discontinue negotiations. Unilever and Kraft Heinz are similar, diverse companies, but they differentiate on some keep points of value. The most important of these is the premium that Unilever places on higher-end brands like Ben & Jerry’s and Talenti Gelato, where as Kraft pushes brands like Velveeta and Jell-O.

Our CEO and Founder here at Vivaldi was asked about the merger and his response was, “If I was Unilever, I would fight this with hand and fist. It would crush everything we celebrate about Unilever.” Unilever has an opportunity to make a deal that could potentially bring profit to investors, but Unilever is trying to convince investors that because the businesses have significant points of differentiation, they do not have the synergy required to formulate a successful merger. In fact, executives at Unilever were extremely surprised when Kraft Heinz began negotiations with them because they see the companies as being so different.

This merger has the potential to be the largest merger ever. The current holder of that title is the merger between Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller which included a $123 billion buyout. Large mergers are becoming more and more common due to the pressure large companies are receiving to consolidate in order to battle slowing sales and make sure they can sustain growth. Even though at this point it seems like Unilever is leaning towards remaining an individual company, they could likely be stalling to angle for a higher price.