Twelve of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, and Tang.

Kraft was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on September 22, 2008, replacing the American International Group.

[10] Kraft Foods traced its roots to the National Dairy Products Corporation, formed on December 10, 1923, by Edward E. Rieck and Thomas H.

[11] The firm was initially set up to execute on a rollup strategy in the fragmented United States ice cream industry.

In 1923 he went to Wall Street to convince investment bankers there to finance his scheme for consolidating the United States ice cream industry.

National Dairy Products Corporation acquired more than 55 firms between 1923 and 1931, with a few notable entities among those: Born in Stevensville, Ontario, Canada, in 1874, James L. Kraft immigrated to the United States in 1903 and started a wholesale door-to-door cheese business in Chicago; its first year of operations was "dismal", losing US$3,000 and a horse.

[4] In the 1925, Marye Dahnke began her career at Kraft as the company home economist, the first woman for that sector of the food industry.

The reason for the name change was given at the time: "Expansion and innovation have taken us far afield from the regional milk and ice cream business we started with in 1923.

In 1988, Kraft sold Duracell to private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, who then put it into an initial public offering in 1989.

In 1989, Kraft merged with Philip Morris's General Foods unit—makers of Oscar Mayer meats, Maxwell House coffee, Jell-O gelatin, Budget Gourmet frozen dinners, Entenmann's baked goods, Kool-Aid, Crystal Light and Tang powdered beverage mixes, Post Cereals, Shake 'n Bake flavored coatings and numerous other packaged foods—as Kraft General Foods.

[4] In 1990, the company acquired Jacobs Suchard (a European coffee and confectionery giant) and Freia Marabou (a Scandinavian confectionery maker) to expand overseas as its business was heavily dependent on the U.S.[26][27] In 1993, it acquired RJR Nabisco's cold cereal business (mainly Shredded Wheat and Shreddies cereals), Terry's of York from United Biscuits, while selling its Breyers ice-cream division to Unilever and its Birds Eye unit to Dean Foods.

In 2000, Philip Morris (renamed Altria in 2003) acquired Nabisco Holdings for $18.9 billion and merged the company with Kraft Foods the same year.

[clarification needed] In 2006, the company bought Southern European business of United Biscuits, gaining several local brands such as Galletas Fontanenda.

[45] Investor Nelson Peltz bought a three-percent stake at Kraft Foods and was talking with the executives on revitalizing the business,[46] with options such as buying Wendy's fast-food chain or selling off Post cereals and Maxwell House coffee.

[46] In November 2007, Kraft agreed to sell its cereal unit to Ralcorp Holdings, a major private-label food maker, for $2.6 billion in a form of a spin-off merger.

[48][clarification needed] In February 2008, Berkshire Hathaway ,run by billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett, announced that it had acquired an 8% stake in Kraft then worth over $4 billion.

[7] On September 7, 2009, Kraft made a £10.2 billion takeover offer for the long-established British confectionery group Cadbury, makers of Dairy Milk and Bournville chocolate.

[52] The offer generated significant political and public opposition in the United Kingdom and abroad, even leading to calls for the government to implement a policy of economic protectionism in cases of takeovers of large companies.

Despite the Cadbury takeover helping boost sales by 30%, Kraft's net profit for the fourth quarter fell 24% to $540m due to costs associated with integrating the UK business after the acquisition.

[65] Kraft spent a one-time $1.3 billion in integration costs to achieve $675 million in recurring annual synergy savings by the end of 2012 (estimated).

[65] In March 2011, Kraft caused national outrage when they sold the site of a historic Cadbury factory it vowed not to close for £50 million after initially publicly promising the continuity of production within the UK in order to win over support for the deal from shareholders.

Former Cadbury workers demanded an apology for the abrupt selling of the plant, but Kraft's CEO Irene Rosenfeld refused to explain her actions.

[69] After a period of poor share performance and investor criticism, Rosenfeld was forced to announce in 2011 the proposed split of the company into two new entities.

[77] In 2010, two California residents filed a class action lawsuit against Kraft Foods for claiming certain products are healthy when in fact they contain unhealthy trans fat.

[78][79] The lawsuit cites current scientific consensus on the dangerous health effects of trans fat, which causes coronary heart disease[80] and has been linked to type 2 diabetes[81] and some forms of cancer.

Kraft uses a similar line of argument for claims like "good source of calcium, iron & zinc to support kids' growth and development", "whole wheat", and others.

[87] In 2011, when Kraft cancelled its contract with Asia Pulp & Paper, Greenpeace executive director Phil Radford commended the company for "taking rainforest conservation seriously".

[88] Kraft began a major restructuring process in January 2004, following a year of declining sales (blamed largely on the rising health consciousness of Americans) and the sacking of co-CEO Betsy Holden.

Senior Kraft executive Marc Firestone made the public apology to MPs at a parliamentary select committee hearing.

[94] On September 10, 2010, a disgruntled employee angered over a recent suspension, Yvonne Hiller, opened fire inside the Philadelphia factory where she had worked for 15 years.