Tyson paying $3.2 billion for meatpacker

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001 | 11:11 a.m.

SPRINGDALE, Ark. -- Tyson Foods Inc., the poultry giant, reached an agreement Monday to acquire IBP Inc. in a $3.2 billion deal that would create the world's largest meat producer and processor, a colossus with revenue of about $23 billion.

The cash-and-stock acquisition ends a three-month battle between Tyson and Smithfield Foods, the giant pork processor, for control of IBP, the nation's biggest packer of fresh beef and a leading pork processor.

Tyson executives said that in capturing IBP, they will have greater power in dealing with giant retailers and food service companies that have combined in recent years. And because Tyson will now have poultry, beef and pork operations, the deal will put the company at the center of nearly every dinner plate, executives said.

But Tyson is expected to face federal antitrust scrutiny of its deal. Farmers, ranchers and pork and poultry producers have grown increasingly worried about the size of the big food companies.

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