Meatpacking giant I-B-P incorporated and its seven Iowa plants has been sold to a New York investment banking company. The Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Company is paying three-point-eight-billion dollars for I-B-P. I-B-P spokesman Gary Mickelson says employees of the company will all keep their jobs.Food processing giant Archer Daniels Midland Company and some I-B-P management employees are also investors in the purchase. Mickelson says I-B-P has approximately 10-thousand employees in Iowa — nearly one-fifth of the company’s workforce. He says the sale will help the company.Mickelson says the sale signals a change for the company known for processing beef and pork, to one that’s involved in all sorts of food processing.I-B-P began as Iowa Beef Packers Incorporated in 1961 in Denison, Iowa. Its headquarters are now in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota. IBP has Iowa plants in Fort Dodge, Denison, Storm Lake, Waterloo, Perry, Council Bluffs and Columbus Junction.
