Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Tuesday, July 22nd.

Today on Forbes, meet the Italian billionaire behind Ferreiro's $3.1 billion deal for Kellogg.

When Italian candy and food giant Ferreiro announced it would acquire W.K. Kellogg,

the cereal maker behind fruit loops and cornflakes,

for $3.1 billion earlier in July. It wasn't just one of the largest deals in the food industry

in the past year. It also marked the crowning achievement of Giovanni Ferreiro, the billionaire

executive chairman and majority owner of his family's company, who has led a decade-long

campaign to evolve his Italian brand well beyond European chocolate treats and turn it into a

food powerhouse in the United States. Forbes estimates the firm has spent more than $13 billion,

including the deal announced early this month, buying up at

least 21 companies in nine countries in the past 10 years, ranging from a snack producer in

Brazil to a butter cookie maker in Denmark. Giovanni took over sole leadership of the company,

best known for its chocolate, hazelnut, Nutella, spread, and Ferreiro-Rosha gold-wrapped

chocolates, after the death of his father, Micheli Ferreiro, in 2015. As the head of the third

generation leading the company, Ferreiro set about on a deal-making splurge to grow the business

while diversifying from its focus on chocolates. It's been a winning strategy.

Since 2015, the firm nearly doubled revenues to $20.4 billion in the year through August

2024. And it nearly doubled EBITA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and

amortization, as well, to $3 billion up from $1.6 billion in 2015.

It's also been good for the Ferreiro family's fortune. Giovanni Ferreiro, who is 60 years old,

owns 75% of the company, and is now worth an estimated $41.2 billion, up from $23 billion when he first

joined Forbes's World's Billionaires List in 2018. He's currently the sixth richest person in Europe,

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