Thetownend.com

Cadbury's are close to selling out to the Yanks as Kraft are close to completing a deal to take over Cadbury's. Fears are Bourneville will close for good and staff cuts galore. Another British Institution down the pan. :(

To be fair, that's where their product ultimately ends up anyway.

So what?

As long as they don't fuck about with the chocolate, which would be choclocide anyway, I don't care.

The shareholders are getting what the board considers a good deal so why not.

I drove through Bourneville once - thought it was plain.

Check the price of shares of Cadbury's. It's not a good offer at all.

Me too, but I went at night. Thought it was dark.

So would you have started a thread if it was another British company buying Cadbury for a price that you consider to be too low?  I don't really buy in to the hysteria concerning foreign takeovers of British companies, especially if the shareholders are voting for the deal.

You can't have it both ways.  Vodafone's hostile takeover of Mannesmann in 2000 was one of the largest in history...but little in the way of outrage from the UK press at the time.  My only complaint in this area is that the playing field is not level in some cases.  A good example would be EDF's takeover of London Electricity.  (I'm sure there are many EDF customers in the UK who are still unaware that EDF stands for 'Electricité De France'.)  Were the boot on the other foot, the French government would simply have disallowed the takeover of a strategic French utility company by a foreign concern.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/will-chocolate-buttons-taste-like-shit?-asks-britain-201001192389/

On the first day of all day drinking in 87 or 88 i was on a canal boat, and we moored up at Bourneville and went looking to get lashed, never new til then it was "dry" bloody quakers.

No but Kraft are saddled with massive debt as well which only means one thing, job cuts for the British Workforce. As for would I have started the thread if Cadbury's was taken over by a British consortium because it would still be British.

Cadbury's chocolate is fucking horrible anyway, greasy and makes me feel physically sick even 1 small square of it, mind you I dont really like chocolate anyway.

Perhaps not a great example, as that was one of the stupidest fucking deals of all time. ;)


True, but if foreign government-backed companies want to spend their tax-subsidised money on our overpriced assets, that's their lookout. Lots of UK utilities are foreign-owned because they paid silly money for them.

Put it this way, if I'm selling my car, and the man at cargiant will give me £10k but the man from USA AUTOS wants to give me £15k then I'm selling it to my American cousin.

Then, when the loan he took out to buy my car goes sour and he has to sell the car to repay the loan, I'll happily buy it back off him for £8k. (See also: Man Utd)

That's because the Cadbury share price went up substantially when the take over talk went public, so the share price today takes in to account the offer made by Kraft. If you go back to before the take over talk you'll see the share price was consistently in the £5 to £6 range.

Still takes better than American 'chocolate'. That is shite.

I deliver to Cadburys in Bournville every week....its a massive place that is half empty now..it has a sad feel to it ...was only a matter of time really.
The factory Cadburys has in Keynsham was once owned by Frys...fifty years ago it was baught out and there was a big commotion..baught out by Cadburys,know its abit different cos they were British but its buisness at the end of the day....

It's easy to get romantic and nostalgic about good ol' British companies, and Cadbury's is in there amongst the great old names; but business is business, and I guess we could just have seen it collapse completely, and the name disappear (like Fry's etc).

However, the argument about foreign takeovers is more complicated (as Man Utd supporters will tell you!!).  I don't support the current 'British jobs for British workers' stuff because  it has nasty racist undertones; but I do support jobs in Britain, and I do fear for an economy which is rapidly losing its major manufacturing base, and relying on the deeply insecure worlds of high finance (as we have seen) and the service industry.  The problem is (especially with American takeovers) that when the crunch comes - and Kraft are by no means the most secure company in the world - the owners will protect their American interests before any others.  Of course!  That's not a criticism, its just fact.  So it does put jobs in Britain seriously at risk.

But I don't like Cadbury's chocolate either....