In our daily lives we have choices to spend our money and one way is to walk through a supermarket. On the shelves will be thousands of products and you will have a choice to buy particular items. There are industries designed to reinforce your decision to buy – whether that is marketing and advertising. You may make a decision based on price or brand or likely a combination of many factors. One of the factors which could influence the decision is who owns what products? and are they investable?

In an article by Anirban Sen, Savyata Mishra, Jessica Dinapoli and Abigail Summerville of Reuters, family owned candy giant Mars Inc is buying Kellanova Co for about $36 billion. Mars has brands such as Mars, M&Ms and Snickers while Kellavova has brands such as Pringles and Pop-Tarts. Kellanova was formed when Kellogg’s divided the cereal brands into Kellogg’s and the rest into Kellanova in 2023. The offered is for $83.50 a share a 33% premium from the price on August 2.

Mars has a 4.54% of the US snacking market, while Kellanova has a 3.9% share, the market leader is PepsiCo with a 18.8% share. The last acquisition of Mars was Wrigley in 2008.

It is expected because there are few overlaps for the antitrust regulators not to agree to the merger, once the deal should be completed in mid 2025. Kellanova will become a part of Mars Snacking led by global President Andrew Clarke, based in Chicago. The present CEO of Kellanova Steve Cahillane announced he would be leaving the company. Mr. Cahillane previously worked at Coca-Cola.

In the pandemic, snack food companies led by Pepsi were able to increase prices, retain market share and increase profits, but this helped inflation go up. Mars CEO Poul Weihrauch said he aims to hold prices steady and not pass on costs from the deal to consumers. Mr. Weihaunch said we are a big and strong company.

Analysts say the deal is a bet that people will continue to buy branded products over cheaper alternatives or buying private label goods. (the brand of your local supermarket).

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as you move through your daily life you can see companies that are potential investments. Many of the companies are not sexy but very dependable in revenues and profits and you can relatively easy monitor your investments. If you are a buyer, are others? do you like the product or service? do you get good value? if the answer is yes, then you can do your homework whether to invest or not in the company. If the company is profitable, then it is easier decision to make and it is easier to decide to hold the shares or seek alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.