Can you wage war over chocolate? Sure you can. Just ask the Aztecs. But it seems kind of funny to have candy companies launch hostile takeovers of each other, as if a lunchroom battle had suddenly turned very ugly. But that's just what's been happening with Cadbury, the 185 year-old English chocolate company. American food giant Kraft launched a £9.8 billion hostile takeover bid of the candy company a few months ago, which was today rejected by Cadbury. The Scottish paper The Daily Record reports that if the bid is successful, Cadbury would be “the last great British confectionery maker to fall into foreign hands.” Cadbury is currently the world's second-largest confectionary group.

Cadbury was originally started by a Quaker family as a coffee-and-tea shop in Birmingham, England, in 1824. John Cadbury sold chocolate as a drink and, in 1853, the Cadburys were granted the royal privilege of supplying chocolate to Queen Victoria.

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