U.S. chocolate maker Hershey is considering launching a bid of at least $17 billion for British chocolatier Cadbury as it seeks to trump a hostile offer by Kraft Foods Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Although office parties are getting downsized — or eliminated — this year, people will still gather and celebrate the holidays with family and friends. We asked some of the nation's top bartenders for their suggestions  on  what to serve at holiday celebrations.

Blackstone Group's Pinnacle Brands is expected to buy U.S. frozen vegetable company Birds Eye Foods for more than $1.3 billion, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.

French food group Danone cut its medium-term sales growth target on Wednesday but said it would increase free cashflow by more than two-thirds by 2012 as it aims to outpace its competitors.

The world no. 2 brewer beat forecasts on Thursday with a 6 percent rise in first-half profit and said its second half should be boosted by a fall in input costs and favorable currency movements.

Subway, the world's No. 2 fast food restaurant chain by sales, plans to expand its Russian network to 1,000 outlets by 2015 from 78 now and make Russia its fourth-biggest European market next year.

Shares of British chocolate maker Cadbury rose back above 800 pence for the first time in almost a month on hopes Hershey and Ferrero would mount a bid to rival that of U.S. food giant Kraft.

Costco customers may have to look elsewhere for Coca-Cola products now that the retailer has stopped carrying them because the pair are fighting over prices.

A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

Burger King, the world's second biggest hamburger chain, said on Friday it plans to open its first Russian restaurant in Moscow this year, lured by the potential of the country's 140 million population.

Anheuser-Busch InBev increased third-quarter core profit by more than expected as price  rises and cost cuts offset lower beer consumption, and forecast similar expansion in the last three months of the year.

Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson raised his firm's stake in Cadbury on Wednesday and now holds 2.54 percent of the British confectioner, the subject of a hostile bid by U.S. food group Kraft.

Kraft Foods turned hostile in its bid for Cadbury on Monday, making a formal but unchanged takeover offer; the British chocolate maker's board rejected the bid saying it was "derisory."

Starbucks reported a quarterly profit that outstripped analysts' forecasts, and it provided a bright earnings outlook that helped push its shares higher in extended trading.

The legalization of marijuana for medical purposes may have some benefits, but no one likely predicted it would be used to market a sushi restaurant. The New York Times reports.