BUSINESS digest

Penn National antes up $2.8B for Pinnacle

NEW YORK

Pinnacle Entertainment is being snapped up by Penn National in a deal worth about $2.8 billion as the gaming industry seeks to diversify and cut costs at the same time.

Penn National Gaming Inc., which operates Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Austintown, is spending $20 in cash for each share, and Pinnacle shareholders will also get 0.42 shares of Penn for each Pinnacle share they own. The stock-and-cash bid is worth an implied $32.47 per share, the companies said.

As part of the deal, Boyd Gaming Corp. is buying four of Penn National’s newly acquired properties. Those include the Ameristar St. Charles and the Ameristar Kansas City, both in Missouri, as well as the Belterra Casino Resort in Florence, Ind., and Belterra Park in Cincinnati. Boyd will pay $575 million for those assets.

Penn says the combined company will have 41 properties in North America, not including those acquired by Boyd. The company also expects about $100 million in annual cost savings as a result of the deal.

Campbell Soup is getting the munchies

NEW YORK

Campbell Soup will spend $4.87 billion in cash for Snyder’s-Lance. The soup maker said Monday the acquisition will allow it to expand its distribution channels in the crowded field.

Campbell Soup Co., based in Camden, N.J., is paying $50 per share, a 6.8 percent premium to Snyder’s-Lance’s closing price Friday. That’s about a 27 percent premium to the stock’s close last Wednesday when rumors of a deal began to circulate.

Snyder’s-Lance, based in Charlotte, N.C., makes pretzels and chips, including Snyder’s of Hanover, Kettle Brand and Pop Secret. It will join the Campbell’s division that makes Pepperidge Farm and Goldfish crackers.

The Snyder’s-Lance purchase marks Campbell’s sixth and largest acquisition over the last five years. It bought beverage-maker Bolthouse Farms in 2012, baby food company Plum and biscuit company Kelsen in 2013, hummus and salsa maker Garden Fresh in 2015, and soup maker Pacific Foods in 2017.

Deal to take Hershey into healthy-snack aisle

NEW YORK

Chocolate and candy maker The Hershey Co. is acquiring Amplify Snack Brands for $1.2 billion as it ventures into the healthy snack aisle. The boards of both companies agreed on the deal in which Hershey will acquire all outstanding stock of Amplify for $12 per share in cash. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.

Amplify, which makes Skinny Pop popcorn, Tyrrells potato chips and Oatmega protein bars, was founded in 2014 and is based in Austin, Texas. It has about 600 employees.

Electric move by Toyota

TOKYO

Toyota plans to offer more than 10 purely electric vehicle models in its lineup by the early 2020s, marking the Japanese automaker’s commitment to that growing technology sector.

Toyota Motor Corp. now offers no purely electric vehicles, although it leads in hybrid models, which switch between an electric motor and a gas engine.

Executive Vice President Shigeki Terashi said Monday Toyota’s EVs will be first offered in China and later in Japan, India, the U.S. and Europe. The company says by about 2025, every model it sells will have some kind of “electrified” version, such as hybrid, electric or fuel-cell.

Associated Press