Hillshire Becomes Target Rather Than Bidder

Hillshire Brands' potential acquisition of Pinnacle Foods received a fair amount of stockholder criticism. Now, shareholders are seeing a jump in Hillshire's stock price as the company has agreed to talk with Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson Foods after each of those companies have made bids in excess of $6 billion to buy Hillshire. If Hillshire's shareholders decide to vote in favor of either acquisition, they could also vote against the acquisition of Pinnacle Foods, allowing Hillshire to get out of the Pinnacle purchase. If this does happen, Pinnacle would receive $163 million as a breakup fee.