Nabisco Holdings Corp

Kraft Foods Inc., the largest U.S. food company, said it paid $12.3 million to Beta Brands Inc. for the right to sell LifeSavers candies in Canada. Kraft acquired LifeSavers last year as part of its purchase of Nabisco Holdings Corp. Beta Brands still held the rights to sell the fruit-flavored candies in Canada, Kraft said. The acquisition gives Kraft the rights to sell LifeSavers throughout North America. Beta Brands, which will continue to produce the candies for Kraft for two years, sold $4.

Nabisco Group Holdings Corp., whose shares have almost doubled since financier Carl Icahn began a takeover attempt five weeks ago, said Friday that other groups may bid for the company, its snack unit or other assets. "We've received lots of interest," said spokesman Hank Sandbach, who declined to give additional specifics. Nabisco Group last month said it will consider options such as selling itself or its only asset: an 80.5% stake in Nabisco Holdings Corp.

Nabisco Holdings Corp. on Monday unveiled a sweeping restructuring that includes shutting some plants and warehouses, firing about 3,100 workers and sharply hiking promotional spending. The nation's largest maker of cookies and crackers said it plans to take a second-quarter restructuring charge of about $268 million, or three times estimated earnings, and take another pretax charge of $118 million over the next year as it reduces its work force by 6%.

Icahn Tries Again: Financier Carl Icahn today will try once again to take over RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp.'s board in a bid to force it to spin off its Nabisco foods business instead of its U.S. cigarette unit, a move RJR's chief executive promptly rejected as impractical. Icahn's bid--his third in less than five years--comes just two days after RJR announced plans to sell its ailing international tobacco operations and then spin off its domestic cigarette business, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

French food and water company Danone formally jumped into the bidding for Nabisco Group Holdings, saying it had entered preliminary discussions to buy the U.S. food maker. With the confirmation, the Paris-based company joined financier Carl Icahn and an estimated dozen other prospective bidders for the holding group, which owns 80% of operating company Nabisco Holdings Corp. Icahn, who has been trying to take control of the company sporadically since 1995, sweetened his latest bid to $6.

Nabisco Group Holdings Corp. invited Carl Icahn to work with its financial advisors, a day after the financier sweetened his bid for the company to about $5.2 billion. Nabisco Group hired Warburg Dillon Read and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter on Monday to help find ways to boost its stock, such as a sale of the company or its 80.6% stake in Nabisco Holdings Corp., the maker of Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies.

Financier Carl Icahn, who has tried repeatedly to wrest control of Nabisco Group Holdings Corp. in recent years, said Thursday that he plans to buy a $1.3-billion stake in the company and push for its sale. Icahn said he is prepared to offer $13 each for 100 million shares of the company, whose main asset is an 80.5% stake in Nabisco Holdings Corp., maker of Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers and Life Savers candies.

Carl Icahn said Monday that he reached an agreement with Nabisco Group Holdings Corp. that will allow the financier to see the company's books and solicit partners for his $4.7-billion takeover offer. In return for the confidentiality agreement, Icahn agreed to drop his month-old proxy fight for Nabisco Group's board. Icahn said he hired Industrial Bank of Japan to study an acquisition of the company, whose only asset is an 80.6% stake in cookie and cracker maker Nabisco Holdings Corp.

A dissident group of shareholders said Tuesday that it had won majority backing for its nonbinding proposal that RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. immediately spin off its food business. The results, if they hold up on closer examination, are a blow to the tobacco company, which had vigorously campaigned against the proposal. RJR had said late last week that its own preliminary count showed the proposal failed to get a majority vote.