Yesterday we learned Kerry Group narrowly missed out on a giant merger with DuPont’s nutrition and biosciences business. The DuPont business will instead merge with International Flavours and Fragrances (IFF), a New York-based flavourings company, in a deal worth $26.2 billion. Why did Kerry lose out? It wasn’t about price, said DuPont CEO Ed Breen on a conference call yesterday afternoon. He said the three main bidders — IFF, Kerry and DSM — valued DuPont evenly. “All three offers sat on top of each other, financially”, he said. “The only difference was their mix of cash and equity.” If not…

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