In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development. 

This week, Mondelez International continues its rapid expansion, Breville Group acquires homecook favorite ChefSteps and Visa acquires payment gateway maker Payworks. 

Mondelez International Continues Expansion With Perfect Snacks

Mondelez International has completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Perfect Snacks, the parent company of the organic protein bar manufacturer Perfect Bar. 

Executive Vice President of Mondelez Glen Walter noted that well-being snacks are a “fast-growing segment” of the industry, and looks forward to “accelerating [Perfect Snacks]’s momentum” going forward with their partnership. 

Perfect Snack’s addition will also likely hasten the growth of Mondelez’ snacks portfolio, which it has feverishly tried to expand with additions like Oreo, Cadbury and Tate’s Bake Shop. No terms of the transaction were made publicly available. 

Breville Group Acquires WiFi-Enabled Home Cook Favorite

Kitchen appliance manufacturer Breville Group has officially completed its acquisition of ChefSteps, the company most known for its smartphone-connected sous vide wand, Joule. 

Breville’s focus will re-orient toward a more global scale, looking to capitalize on the long term R&D capacities that made the Joule products so successful on the market. 

While confronted with a variety of issues that cast doubt on its financial health, ChefSteps will now be integrated fully into the Breville Group and will continue to operate out of its Seattle office. No terms of the transaction were made publicly available. 

Visa Acquires Payworks to Integrate With Existing POS

Visa has acquired Payworks, a Munich-based provider of payment gateway software. 

Visa said that the acquisition follows a strategic partnership and investment it made in Payworks early last year. Visa intends to integrate Payworks’ with its existing offerings to create a fully integrated Point-of-Sale solution. 

The payment provider will integrate Payworks’ cloud-based retail payment processing with its CyberSource digital payment management platform to create a more secure and modern payment solutions to merchants and customers.

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week:

• Furniture and electronics rent-to-own company Rent-A-Center will acquire Merchants Preferred, a lease to purchase service provider. The deal is valued at $47.5 million.

• Security software company Symantec Corporation has rejected Broadcom Limited’s acquisition offer after the due diligence process. 

• Motorola has acquired WatchGuard, an industry leader in mobile video solutions. Watchguard is best known for its body camera technology. 

• Anheuser-Busch InBev has called off the planned IPO of its Asian business, citing poor market conditions.