A third suitor is making a bid to purchase I-B-P, the world’s largest beef processor. The country’s largest poultry company, Tyson Foods, is offering four-point-two-BILLION dollars for I-B-P. Tyson Media Relations Director Ed Nicholson says his company’s offer is better than the two others.He says the Tyson offer is 50-percent cash and 50-percent stock. A group of I-B-P managers made an offer for the company in October and Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest pork processor, upped the ante with an offer in November. The Smithfield offer has raised concerns about concentration in the industry. Nicholson says Tyson’s offer would not carry the same concerns.The Tyson offer amounts to 26-dollars per share of I-B-P stock, compared to 25-dollars for the Smithfield offer and 22-dollars and 50-cents from the I-B-P ownership offer. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley issued a statement today saying he has as much concern about the Tyson proposal as he did the Smithfield offer. Grassley says he wants federal officials to fully review the Tyson proposal.
