Mondelez Makes Takeover Bid for Hershey

Mondelez International Inc, the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, has made a takeover bid for chocolate and sugar confectionery company Hershey Co, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Hershey shares jumped 21 percent, touching a record high of $117.79 and giving the company a market capitalization of about $25 billion. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the bid.

The Hershey's kisses maker is controlled by the Hershey trust, which has about 80 percent of its voting rights.

Analysts have been skeptical of takeover bids for Hershey in the past.

"The Trust ... is outwardly very committed to keeping the company independent," Bernstein analyst Alexia Howard had said in June last year. "So it's pretty much impossible for an activist to get involved or for the company to be bought."

Mondelez shares were up 2.1 percent at $43.91. (Reporting by Lauren Hirsch in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)