(Image source: Bloomberg)

BY DAVID EARL

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

Maybe you used to do some lunchroom swapping to get your hands on the stackable, not-potato-chip-potato-chip. Turns out Kellogg’s want to swap for them too – but instead of lunch, they’re trading a big bag of bills.

“Kellogg’s is paying $2.7 billion in cash -- cold hard cash -- for Pringles snacks.”

Fox Business has the interview with the CEO of Kellogg on Wednesday. He says his company is big, and likes that it’s getting bigger.

“The Kellogg’s company is the the world’s second-largest cookie and cracker company, and this now makes us the second-largest savory snack company as well.”

And a Wall Street Journal reporter says— for the traditional cereal company, snapping up snacks is smart.

“In a lot of the countries where it’s trying to grow, like Asia, I think it’s tough to do cereal ... Is that a cultural thing? I think people aren’t as into cereal in some places.”

But Bloomberg Businessweek points out — this is actually the SECOND bid to buy the Pringles brand from P&G. The original bid came from Diamond Foods.

“The [first] deal collapsed after Diamond Foods last week replaced its chief executive officer and restated earnings for the past two years after the board found payments to walnut growers had been booked in the wrong periods."

With the completion of this sale, P&G will officially exit the food business. But that was the plan all along according to an InformationWeek article featuring an interview with P&G CEO Bob McDonald.

“P&G won't lose innovation capacity with the sale of Pringles ... because Pringles is the last of P&G's food businesses, so it wasn't contributing a lot to the collective knowledge from which other businesses could draw.”

So P&G sheds a black sheep and Kellogg’s gains a high-profile snacking staple. Win-win. And according to CNBC, the deal between Kellogg’s and P&G won’t spell downsizing at Pringles.

“Now the 1700 workers at Pringles? Just expected to trade jersey colors.”

News of the deal had Kellogg’s shares up nearly 6 percent during Wednesday trading.