Mars → Kellanova
Family-owned Mars paid $83.50 a share in cash, $35.9bn including debt, for Kellanova, the Pringles and Cheez-It business left after Kellogg split in two; US regulators cleared it, but a European inquiry into Mars's bargaining power over retailers held completion back to December 2025.
Mars paid $83.50 a share for the Pringles and Cheez-It owner, closing after an extended EU review.
- Value
- $35.9B
- Announced
- August 2024
- Completed
- December 2025
- Sector
- Consumer
- Deal type
- acquisition
- Acquirer
- Mars (United States)
- Target
- Kellanova (United States)
Why it mattered
Kellanova was what remained of the Kellogg Company after October 2023, when the North American cereal business was spun off as WK Kellogg Co. It kept the snacks — Pringles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats — and the international cereals, with 2023 net sales of more than $13bn. Mars, with more than $50bn of sales from pet care, snacking and food, offered on 14 August 2024 a premium of about 44% to Kellanova's unaffected 30-day average price, valuing it at 16.4 times adjusted EBITDA, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trust and the Gund family agreed to vote their shares in favour. Closing was planned for the first half of 2025.
The two companies sold different products, so the review turned on portfolio power. The US Federal Trade Commission examined "potential portfolio effects" for nearly a year before granting early termination in June 2025. The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation on 25 June 2025, concerned that adding Kellanova's "must-have" brands would let Mars push retailers into accepting higher prices. On 8 December 2025 it cleared the deal unconditionally: Kellanova's products, with a long shelf life and usually bought on impulse and infrequently, would not strengthen Mars's hand, and there was too little evidence that shoppers would change supermarket if both companies' brands were missing. The acquisition completed on 11 December 2025.
What it left behind
Kellanova left the New York Stock Exchange, its chief executive Steve Cahillane stepped down, and its brands were placed in Mars Snacking, alongside M&M's, Snickers and Twix, with RXBAR, Nutri-Grain and Special K bars in its Accelerator unit. The other half of the old Kellogg had already been sold: Ferrero bought WK Kellogg Co for $3.1bn in a deal closed in September 2025. Within two years of the split both parts had new owners. Consumer-goods deals without overlapping products can no longer count on a quick clearance: theories of portfolio power now draw in-depth reviews, and the timetable, more than the outcome, has to be planned around them.