The long-announced sale of Wm. Wrigley Corporation to Mars, Inc. (with a greasing of the skids courtesy of Warren Buffet and the fine folks at Berkshire Hathaway) was approved by shareholders during a special morning meeting at Chase Auditorium. The deal, in which Wrigley becomes a standalone company within the Mars empire, makes Mars the largest candy company in the world. [Sun-Times]......

Talk about your major deals. Mars, Inc. is set to buy the Wm. Wrigley Corporation for $22 billion. The deal is being fueled by some serious seed money from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. The deal, which isn't inked yet, would signal a serious sea change in the snack food and candy market as prices for both sugar and milk are on the rise. It could also spur further consolidation within the confectionery industry, as Hershey......

Baseball is always about statistics, numbers, charts and rankings, but this season of Cubs baseball is going to be all about one number. That number, of course, being "one hundred." Be prepared to hear about the hundred World-Series-Championship-free years at least a million times this season. So as the Lovable Losers get ready to tear the scab off of another season, we thought now would be an opportune time to look back at the park......

While we here in the Chicagoist offices have taken exception to the possible re-naming of Wrigley Field, we have a much bigger issue with the possible new ownership of the park. From the get-go, we have opposed the sale of Wrigley to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the state agency that owns and runs U.S. Cellular Field. While we appreciate that the ISFA's actions in the late 80s kept our beloved White Sox from......

Wrigley announced today at its shareholder meeting that it's redesigning its gum packaging for old-school stick gum (as opposed to pellet gum or tab gum). They're calling it a "slim pack;" it's envelope-style and it holds 15 pieces. The company also announced its push into more fruit-flavored gum, including Sangria Fresca and Fabulous Fruitini from Orbit. Is booze gum the wave of the future? If it is, consider this our plea for Campari gum. Until......