Spotlight: Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. Is Sold Again

San Francisco-based Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. has changed hands for the fourth time in a dozen years after being acquired by Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Spruengli of Zurich for undisclosed terms. Lindt said the deal will make it No. 2 in the U.S. premium-chocolate market. Ghirardelli was acquired in March 1996 by Hicks Muse Tate & Furst Inc., which bought the company from investor Thomas H. Lee Co., which had acquired it from Quaker Oats Co. in 1992. The De Domenico family sold it to Quaker in 1986.