DealZone

The Novartis deal to buy Alcon from Nestle wasn’t a surprise, but $39 billion does grab your attention. Add in minority shareholders potentially getting a raw deal and wrap it all up with the question of what Nestle does with the proceeds and it makes the top story of the day. A Nestle share buyback is in the works but is the company eyeing Cadbury? Questions abound.

The Reuters wrap up of the deal is here. A WSJ blog makes the case that Nestle now has the cash and incentive for a Cadbury bid, but a Bloomberg story pours cold water on the idea.

“Publicly NestlĂ© has said there are no big deals on the horizon but that it might do bolt-on acquisitions. So they wouldn’t be interested in the whole of Cadbury, but it is plausible that they could do a consortium bid – with Hershey taking the chocolate business and NestlĂ© taking the chewing gum and candy,” Warren Ackerman, an analyst at Evolution Securities, tells The Guardian.

Here are other takes on this “eye-catching” deal:

Novartis-Alcon: Not Really a Consumer-Health Deal

Does Alcon Deal Stack Up For Novartis?

and not to be outdone by the hard news: *sigh* I will miss free Nestle ice cream at Alcon company picnics