Chicken king bids for world largest beef processor

摘要

Tyson Foods Incorporated, which just two years ago began exiting any business that wasn't chicken - abandoning its previously stated strategy to dominate the centre of the plate - in December, jumped all over the centre of the plate in making its ownbid, boldly and unexpectedly, for IBP Inc. The company's move could lead to a bidding event similar to that between ConAgra Inc. and Tyson in the late-1980s when the two companies raised each other's antes for weeks and weeks until Tyson finally prevailed in capturing Holly Farms Inc. - an event that established Tyson as the largest chicken producer in the world, a position from which it has never looked back. A successful takeover of IBP would make Tyson the leading chicken and meat producer in the world, with a market share from which it would likewise need never look back, sources said.