anone to sell Stonyfield to Lactalis for $875 million

The sale of Stonyfield is part of an agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with Danone’s recent acquisition of WhiteWave. Danone and WhiteWave together have big chunks of the yogurt market with brands including Dannon, Oikos, Actimel, Silk, Wallaby and Horizon Organic, which led to concerns from the Justice Department about concentration in the dairy sector. Danone said that the sale price represented a multiple of about 20 times the 2016 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for Stonyfield.Lactalis, based in the town of Laval, about 175 miles southwest of Paris, is a family-owned company whose cheese, milk and other dairy products are sold under well-known brands such as President and Bridel. It said it has 75,000 employees spread across 85 countries.Its agreement to buy Stonyfield comes as the French company faces increasing pressure to offer healthier foods as consumer tastes change.Other bidders for the asset included big dairy processor Dean Foods Co. , Mexico’s Grupo Lala and China’s largest dairy company Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., according to a person familiar with the matter.