The Breakfast of Boomerangs

A year ago, RJR Nabisco Inc. officials poured a lot of money and effort into a breakfast bash to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Shredded Wheat. Since then, the company has spent a good deal of effort trying to get rid of the cereal.

But it keeps trying to come back.

First, Nabisco agreed to sell its Shredded Wheat business to General Mills Inc., the nation’s second-largest cereal maker. That deal fell through, and Kraft General Foods Inc., the third-largest cereal producer, bought Shredded Wheat for $450 million in January.

A month later, New York Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams filed an antitrust suit in U.S. District Court in New York City, seeking to reverse the deal. Abrams said there’s already too little competition in the cereal business and that the sale could result in price collusion by cereal manufacturers.

“It’s easier to break into motion pictures than it is to break into the cereal market,” Abrams spokesman Edward Barbini said.

A court hearing date has not been set, but Abrams believes he can stop the deal. At Nabisco and Kraft, “as far as we’re concerned, the sale went through,” Nabisco spokeswoman Ann Smith said.