Dole agrees $1.2bn buyout by chief exec
TINNED fruit maker Dole will be privatised by its 90-year-old chief executive for the second time in a decade after agreeing to a $1.2bn (£776m) buyout.
The California-based company, which started life growing pineapples in Hawaii more than a century ago, will exit the stock market after boss David Murdock offered owners $645m to buy the company.
His $13.50 a share offer, more than a 30 per cent premium, for the remaining 60 per cent he does not already own follows an earlier $12 a share offer that was knocked back by investors.
Murdock previously took the company private in 2003 before it returned to the stock market in 2009.