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Consumers have been saved from the evils of a corporate monopoly -- in the pretzel industry.

Over in Europe, regulators are playing it tough with the likes of Sun Microsystems and Intel.

Here in the U.S., anti-trust regulators are cracking down on pretzels?

This afternoon, the small, family-owned pretzel company, Synders of Hanover, Penn., said it was scuttling its plans to acquire crosstown snack food maker Utz Quality Foods Inc. because it didn’t want to bare the cost of an escalating inquiry in into the deal by the Federal Trade Commission. According to Utz, the FTC had made a second request for information about its business.

“We knew that participating in another FTC request would put a strain on our company and ultimately distract us from what we are here to do every day, which is to provide high-quality snacks to our customers and serve our community,” said Utz chief executive Michael Rice in a statement.

(HT: Vince Veneziani)

Posted by edelfenbein at November 5, 2009 6:40 PM