Talk:Ralston Purina Company

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[edit] Purina and Koch Industries (repost from Quadell and TMS63112 talk pages)

Hi! It looks like you added information to these articles about Koch acquiring Purina in 1998 but having tha acquition voided by bankruptcy court in 2000. Can you cite a source to verify that information? I remember Purina's acquisition by Nestle being a big news story, but I don't recall any coverage of this would-be merger. Thanks! TMS63112 20:26, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes. This article by Consumers Union (best known as the published of Consumer Reports) spells it out. It's not that the merger wasn't approved - it was. It's just that Purina declared bankrupcy, and Koch sold out, I believe because the bankrupcy judge said they had to. Note also: This Koch site says "In January 1999, Dave [Robertson] became president of Koch Agriculture Company, managing the downsizing of Koch's agriculture interests, including its divestiture of Purina Mills, Inc." And this news source says simply that Koch dropped its Purina Mills holding, without saying why.

Thanks. The sources aren't entirely clear, but the St. Louis Business Journal article seems to suggest that Koch only owned a 5% stake of Purina Mills. I think there may also be a distinction between "Purina Mills" and Ralston Purina. I think Purina mills was the farm animal feedd manufacturer. Ralston Purina (the parent company) may have sold a stake in that operation to Koch Industries while retaining all of their pet food operations (which were sold to Nestle in 2001). I seem to remember Ralston divesting a lot of their other operations (ceral, batteries, hockey team) in the 1990's to focus on the pet foods. TMS63112 20:58, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

I think at one point they held 90%+, then went down to 5%, then dropped out altogether. It's so complicated, figuring out who owns who in the corporate world! Sometimes the lines all blur together. All the best, – Quadell ^{(talk) (bounties)} 21:22, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, all the corporate relationships are confusing. I am going to post our discussion on the talk page of the article so there is a record of it and the relevant sources. I may also edit the article to reflect the relationship as best I understand it from the available sources. Cheers! TMS63112 05:07, 13 February 2006 (UTC)