“Hershey’s major shareholder pledges to keep power”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070401/bs_nm/hershey_cadbury_wsj_dc

The article I read was discussing the current situation of share ownership within the Hershey’s corporation. There had been speculation of a merger with a Cadbury in Britain, but recent information released by the majority shareholders makes that seem unlikely to happen. Hershey’s Trust who is the majority shareholder stated they were satisfied with current management and put forth a plan to gain majority ownership rivals in the future. The reason most of the speculation about combining with Cadbury came into light was the recent split of Cadbury into two seperate divisions. That aspect tied with a desire of Hershey’s to go global made a link sof the two seem possible and even probable to some. Hershey’s has had some financial downfalls lately but plans to refocus on traditional chocolate to boost sales.
The reason I felt this article was appropriate for discussion within the blog is the topic it covers. In class we have spent a good amount of time discussing different transactions and even the concept of power within social relations. The Hershey’s stock is traded within the New York Stock Exchange, which is one of the auctions that had been mentioned in class. This type of auction has multiple sellers and buyers, but as it could be seen within this article when one buyer or seller (or group of sellers and buyers like the Hershey’s Trust) has majority ownership of stocks they are in a greater position of power then the others. Another area power comes into play in the article is due to the trend of Hershey’s stock value falling lately. This shows that owners of the stock are losing power when compared to potential buyers. Their “good” is no longer worth as much so they have less power to barter. Another part to the article dealt with a new type of power that comes from outside the economic transaction. The article discussed the Hershey’s Trust thoughts about selling their majority as of last year and the negative reaction they recieved from stakeholders as a result of it. A stakeholder is anyone outside of an economic transaction that is affected by the economic transaction. In this specific case it was employees and communities worried about the loss of jobs that may possibly be a result of Hershey’s Trust selling the majority. It is an obvious display of power as Hershey’s Trust decided not to sell.