A PYMNTS Company

US: Hershey’s Hometown to try to stop Chocolate merger with Mondelez

By  |  July 5, 2016

Pennsylvania’s attorney general supervises the Hershey Trust, the company’s controlling shareholder.

The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, calls itself the “sweetest place on earth.”

But if chocolate giant Hershey considers any new acquisition offer in the coming weeks, it could face bitter opposition from some in its namesake town, where residents have prospered from its presence and tend to be fierce defenders of its independence.

The impact of such views goes beyond sentimental in the wake of Mondelez International’s $23 billion bid to buy the company, which Hershey said on June 30 it had rejected. The town of Hershey, where the company’s staunchest loyalists are referred to as “Hershey-ites,” has real influence over corporate decisions.

The Hershey Trust, a $12 billion school charity and the company’s controlling shareholder, has become increasingly involved in the local community over the decades, and has appeared to listen to its concerns in the past.

Full Content: Fortune

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