Kraft CEO plays steady hand with Cadbury bid

By Brad Dorfman

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In her biggest gambit yet for Kraft Foods (KFT.N), Irene Rosenfeld just won't blink.

Rosenfeld took her offer for British chocolatier Cadbury Plc (CBRY.L) hostile on Monday, submitting to its shareholders a $16.4 billion cash and stock bid rejected as "derisory" by the company's leadership.

The formal offer, submitted in time for a UK Takeover Panel deadline, caps two months of a steady waiting game by Rosenfeld that has punctured investor hopes of a much sweeter bid.

In her management of Kraft's business, Rosenfeld has already shown she is prepared to walk away from a proposition that did not suit the world's second-largest food company, or in some cases, her own ambitions.

For example, one of the reasons Kraft reported disappointing quarterly results last week, she said, was because the company stood its ground against retailers pushing for product deals that would have hurt Kraft's profits.

"We've chosen to walk away and stand firm in a number of cases," Rosenfeld told Reuters last week. "It is absolutely the right decision."

When she rolled out a new set of operational guidelines for her company early this year, Rosenfeld left no doubt as to what should be done with employees who stubbornly resisted.

"You roll right over them," Rosenfeld said at the time.