Introduction to the Purpose and Intentions of the Project

by Alexander Pawellek

Sara Lee, an American food seller, has been engaged in takeover talks for some months. Multiple bidders for the company have emerged, namely a Brazilian meat producer and Apollo Global Management (and its associates). If this deal goes through, a winning bid may value Sara Lee at around $12-15 bio.

The aim of this blog is to explain the development of this takeover until now and cover the current events as they unfold.
Over the past weeks, a team of five MSc Corporate Finance students has followed the news surrounding the takeover closely and has prepared several posts which will be released in the weeks to come.

Numerous factors make this takeover interesting to follow. Firstly, multiple bidders have emerged which is likely to lead to strong rivalry between the interested parties. Secondly, with Apollo Global Management, a PE-house is engaged in the bidding. This is appealing because Private Equity investments have been scarce amid the financial crisis. Additionally, the rationale behind Apollo's bid will be interesting to analyze. Thirdly, with a Brazilian meat producer showing such strong interest in an American company, political attention may be drawn to this takeover in order to protect a potential key strategic market.

In the first posts, the companies will be presented in order to understand the motivation of the parties involved and summarize the takeover talks which started in the late summer of 2010. Following that, recent events will be covered on a weekly basis. This will enable the reader to follow every step in the development of this possible takeover. In addition, the team will comment on the proceedings and likely outcomes and speculate about the agendas which may drive the parties' decisions and motives.

We wish all readers an exciting and insightful experience with our blog.

And for any follower we encourage two things:

1.) Write your own post: once you have read our posts, maybe you have an idea what other aspect of the takeover would be interesting to analyze. Just write your own post and it will be published under your own name in this blog!
And/or
2.) Comment: we welcome all thoughts, suggestions or questions and will try to answer or address them.