Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Thursday August 8, 2013

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Thursday August 8, 2013: TreeHouse Foods to Acquire Associated Brands for C$187 Million in Cash The Deal:
TreeHouse Foods THS announced Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Associated Brands GP Corporation for C$187 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2013. Associated Brands is a manufacturer of packaged flavored drink and soup mixes. Treehouse Foods closed at $72.93 Thursday, a gain of 2.5% on average volume. Starboard Reportedly Seeks Group to Form Rival Bid for Smithfield The Rumor:
Shares of Smithfield Foods SFD spiked higher late Thursday on a report from Bloomberg that investor Starboard Value LP is attempting to form a group to rival a bid from Shuanghui International Holdings, which agreed to acquire Smithfield for $4.7 billion. Starboard reportedly approached Tyson Foods TSN, KKR KKR and Blackstone BX regarding the formation of the rival group. Smithfield Foods closed at $33.65 Thursday, a gain of $0.25 on average volume. CSC Acquires Infochimps The Deal:
Computer Sciences Corporation CSC has acquired Infochimps, a provider of big data platform-as-a-service for enterprise businesses and an open source innovator based in Austin, Texas. The acquisition closed on August 5. Terms were not disclosed. Computer Sciences Corporation closed at $52.15 Thursday, a loss of 3.5% on almost twice average volume.