DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Bestfoods, which has been the center of takeover speculation on both sides of the Atlantic, may be turning the tables, possibly looking for acquisitions of its own. "Fortune" magazine's Janet Guyon has more now from London. Janet, what acquisitions is Bestfoods looking at right now?</s>JANET GUYON, LONDON BUREAU CHIEF, "FORTUNE": Well, we had some reports that Bestfoods has been talking to Diageo, which is a food company located here in London that owns Pillsbury, and Bestfoods seems to be interested in buying Pillsbury, and they've apparently had some conversations there. Now this morning I talked to Diageo and they said they had no comment on these kinds of conversations. However, I did talk to another source very close to Diageo here in London, and they said that the idea that Bestfoods would actually buy Pillsbury is extremely unlikely and that this is really a case of Bestfoods speaking to Diageo, and just about every other U.S. food company about an acquisition or some other kind of transaction.</s>HAFFENREFFER: Could this be a ploy on some part to get Unilever to raise its price?</s>GUYON: Yes, David, I really think that's the case. You know, Unilever made this bid a few weeks ago, they've been sitting there waiting for Bestfoods to talk to them. Bestfoods has said that their $66 a share offer is inadequate, and they have really just refused to talk to Unilever. So I do think that a lot of these reports we're getting about Bestfoods talking to this company, that company, you know, joint venture, merger, are really ways for Bestfoods to fend off the Unilever proposal, or to do something else that will keep them out of the clutches of Unilever.</s>HAFFENREFFER: All right, thank you very much, Janet Guyon from "Fortune" magazine, joining us this morning from London.
'Fortune': Bestfoods Turns the Table, Talking to Diageo as Possible Acquisition