pfizer Inc. is expected to announce today it has reached a deal to sell its baby food business to Nestle SA for more than $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Swiss food giant beat rival Groupe Danone SA for the Pfizer unit after a months-long auction.
A key driver of the deal for Nestle - the leading seller of milk formula for babies worldwide - is to get a bigger footprint in China, where it is outsold by Pfizer.
Nestle had a 17 percent share of the $27 billion global market in 2010, followed by Mead Johnson with 15 percent and Danone with 13 percent, according to the most recent data from market research firm Euromonitor International.
Pfizer said in July it would divest the infant nutrition business as well as an animal health unit, seeking to focus on its core drugs business.
