SNACK MIX: HERSHEY TO BUY AUSTIN’S AMPLIFY
Chocolate Kisses maker pays $1.6B in biggest-ever acquisition to enter salty-snack market.
Amplify Snack Brands, an Austin company best known for its SkinnyPop popcorn, is being bought by The Hershey Co. in a $1.6 billion deal that the maker of chocolate Kisses and candy bars is billing as its largest acquisition ever as it launches a major push into the market for salty snacks.
Shares of Amplify, which had been down about 21 percent for the year through Friday, soared Monday after the deal was announced, climbing nearly 72 percent to $12.01.
Under terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter next year, Pennsylvania-based Hershey will pay $12 a share in cash for Amplify, or $921 million, and also take on about $600 million in Amplify’s debt.
The snack sector has been consolidating as global food manufacturers try to jump-start growth at a time when health-conscious consumers have become picky about what they eat but also eat more on the go. In addition to Hershey’s pending purchase of Amplify, Campbell Soup announced a $4.87 billion deal Monday to buy Snyder’s-Lance, which makes pretzels, potato chips and other salty snacks.
Amplify’s products include Paqui tortilla chips, Tyrrells potato chips and Oatmega protein bars — and it touts them as ideal for guilt-free consumption because of the quality, natural ingredients that it uses. Amplify’s SkinnyPop popcorn brand has about 17.5 percent of the market for ready-to-eat popcorn, making it the No. 2 player in a snack category that has been growing 13 percent annually since 2013.
Hershey CEO Michele Buck called Amplify “a high-growth snack food company” and said Monday that the deal marks “an important step in our journey to becoming an innovative snack-