Tyson Foods has extended its tender offer for Hillshire Brands as the U.S. Department of Justice seeks more details on the pair’s $8.5 billion merger plan. Tyson Foods announced the extension and the department’s request in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
In the filing, Tyson Foods said it and Hillshire had each received requests for more information from the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. Tyson said the request relates “only to a very small portion of the combined Tyson/Hillshire Brands business,” and that it still expects the deal, reached in July, to go through.
Tyson Foods’ original tender offer was set to expire on July 16. It has now been extended to Aug. 19.
Tyson Foods outbid Pilgrim’s Pride of Greeley, Colorado, for Hillshire, eventually agreeing to pay $63 per share for Hillshire’s 124 million outstanding shares while assuming $553 million in Hillshire debt. Hillshire has top brands such as Ball Park hot dogs and Jimmy Dean sausage.
Last month, a coalition of 82 farm, consumer and community groups urged the Justice Department to extend its division’s review of the deal. The groups sent a letter to William Baer, the assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division, saying that the merger would “substantially lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly,” which is in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act.
