Investor Suits Over Kraft-Heinz Merger Consolidated

Kraft Food Group Inc. won its bid to consolidate investor lawsuits alleging that its proposed $49 billion merger with H.J. Heinz Co. isn’t in the best interest of Kraft’s shareholders (Leitz v. Kraft Foods Grp., Inc., E.D. Va., 3:15-cv-00262, 5/26/15).

Finding that the cases “involve virtually identical questions of law and fact,” Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, May 26 consolidated and merged the separate lawsuits under one docket—Civil Action No. 3:15CV262.

According to the complaints, the proposed merger was “designed to ensure a transaction with Heinz on terms preferential ...