Pfizer Sale: Nestle To Buy U.S. Drugmaker's Nutrition Business For $11.9 Billion

ZURICH, April 23 (Reuters) - Swiss food group Nestle is to buy U.S. drugmaker Pfizer's nutrition business for $11.85 billion, beating out French rival Danone as both battle to gain preeminence in the lucrative baby food market.

Nestle, the world's biggest packaged food company, was already seen as a favoured bidder due largely to its deep pockets, and is paying for the acquisition in cash.

The Vevey-based firm expects the acquisition will generate sales of $2.4 billion this year and boost margins, thanks to its large exposure to emerging markets, where the population is growing quickly.

"Its strong brands and product portfolio, its talented people dedicated to the success of its business, together with its geographic presence - 85 percent of its sales are in emerging markets - will complement our existing infant nutrition business perfectly," Nestle Chief Executive Paul Bulcke said on Monday.

Pfizer put its infant nutrition and animal health businesses up for sale last July as it looks to focus on its core pharmaceuticals business.

Comments

[Kritikos]

12:00 PM on 04/23/2012

Get ready for drug candy.

[OutAtFirst]

12:42 PM on 04/23/2012

Viagra chocolate, Baby! Woody Bars!

[jonny dipstick]

09:26 AM on 04/23/2012

I was surprised when I heard this. Does china really want all this baby stuff? My chinese friend just feeds his baby the meat from the rabbit hanging in his store. He said it worked for him as a kid and he doesn't need all that fancy formula stuff. That is what he has a wife for he says. I don't get it. I think its messed up to keep those skinned animals in the window. Not cool Yinlong. Not cool.

[Aneesia]

08:22 AM on 04/23/2012

Can't wait for the prices to go up to pay for Nestles purchase....remember it's about profits and egos.

[ABXNOMORE]

08:46 AM on 04/23/2012

Nestles doesn't produce any thing worth buying, so save your money. It's all processed foods filled with chemicals and artificial flavors and detrimental to your health and longevity. Eat "real" food, the stuff that mother nature provides for human consumption. Dump infant forumla, mother nature provides for that too, and for free.

[carllafong]

07:53 AM on 04/23/2012

I hope this sale leads to chocolate chewable viagra.

[Clem2]

07:35 AM on 04/23/2012

Well, one lousy corporation buying up another making a too big to fail lousy corp?

[simsum]

07:17 AM on 04/23/2012

We feed you junk food.
Then you get sick.
Then we sell you pills.
Then you get addicted.
Then we go to the bank.

[rothomaha]

07:09 AM on 04/23/2012

Ah yes, Nestle, that moral company. Nestle was the first global company to market infant formula to women in the Third World, who had to mix it in water which was not sterile, or use bottles for prepared formula which were not sterilized. As Nestle's sales and profits soared, infants died from intestinal infections; while Nestle's made millions, families suffered the loss of their children in agony. Ah yes, Nestle! And if the company chooses to pull another such inhuman "fast one" on unsuspecting people, I wonder what the stance of the US government will be in this "industrial globalization" process? I wonder where the profits made in this country by Nestle will go? I wonder whether Nestle will pay corporate taxes in the US? I wonder how much Nestle stock is owned by our esteemed "lawmakers" bought despite the law against their inside trading? Does anyone see why lawmakers should need a law to prevent them from breaking the law? Odd, isn't it? Ah yes - Nestle! Welcome to the US Kingdom of the 1%!

[Siebenstein]

06:37 AM on 04/23/2012

Have a delicious chocolate steroid drink, lol.

[tulsey]

06:34 AM on 04/23/2012

This should streamline soylent green production.

[casaroonc]

05:29 AM on 04/23/2012

Nothing good can come from this.

[Justjack1]

05:24 AM on 04/23/2012

Great, now they can make gift baskets with Chocolate and viagra, or to save time, just lace the chocolates with viagra and call the new product "cat nip for humans"

[Edward Skompski]

04:59 AM on 04/23/2012

Nestle Quick - Will it have a bunny on the front with a massive erection???? Only time will tell...

[RatPack78]

04:22 AM on 04/23/2012

Am I the only one worried when a food manufacturer combines forces with a drug company?

[Siebenstein]

06:38 AM on 04/23/2012

Nope. Me too.

[Clem2]

08:38 AM on 04/23/2012

Guess we will have to get a list of Nestle products and be sure to avoid them.

[themodernleader]

03:55 AM on 04/23/2012

In monopolistic capitalism the ownership becomes ever more  concentrated and centralized that translates into ever more power---economic and political.  When mistakes turn into catastrophes, local governments are made to bail out leadership failure and folly. Top-down leadership is actually a hankering back to those administrations that vanquished the human spirit and enterprise for centuries upon centuries.  The Western world is being transferred into a vassal region of the growing eastern and other developing  nations and people. 
   When usury  and debt dictate national decisions, oligarchy replaces individual initiative and opportunity.  The individual is submerged to powerful economic, financial  cabals.

[AreYouStupid]

03:34 AM on 04/23/2012

Not good. I heard what Nestle bottle water division was caught doing. Wonder what wicked web they will weave in their next mission to deceive.

[parlimentMike]

03:42 AM on 04/23/2012

Once they get to a certain size it becomes all about bottom line. I don't trust them after that either.

[AreYouStupid]

03:44 AM on 04/23/2012

Bingo