Source:  MEATINGPLACE.COM, 5/4/11

ConAgra Foods, maker of Healthy Choice frozen meals and Slim Jim meat snacks, sweetened its bid to buy Ralcorp Holdings to about $4.9 billion in cash, or $86 a share.

ConAgra also offered to assume $2.5 billion in debt.

ConAgra raised its offer after proposing $82 a share in cash and stock in March. Ralcorp makes Post cereals, plus pasta, bakery goods, snacks and sauces, and is a leading maker of private-label foods.  The deal would create the third-largest U.S. packaged foods company.

The current offer represents a 3 percent premium to Ralcorp's closing share price on Tuesday and a 32 percent premium to its closing share price on March 21.

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