Twinkies due on shelves as $410 million bid OK'd

The winning bid is a joint venture by private equity firms Apollo Global Management (APO) and Metropoulos & Co. A statement from Dean Metropoulos, founder of one of the firms, confirmed they are the winning bidder.

"Our family is thrilled to have the opportunity to reestablish these iconic brands with new creative marketing ideas and renewed sales efforts and investment," said Metropoulos. "We look forward to having America's favorite snacks back on the shelf by this summer. We are also ecstatic to bring jobs back to many cities across the country."

The bankruptcy court had been set to have an auction among qualified bidders on Thursday, but Hostess notified the court late Monday that no other qualified bids had been submitted. That means the $410 million bid wins by default with no further approval of the court being required.

Thanks! Snack Foods were an early interest in life, and I was able to study this area much more closely in college and graduate school.

I agree about the Funny Bones, though after Hostess bought Drake’s, they skimped on the peanut butter creme. In fact, last time I was in CT, I brought a box of Funny Bones home to Illinois, along with a bottle of Foxon Park Birch Beer. I failed to impress anybody with them. One lady at church agreed to try the Birch Beer. One sip ... “Ugh! It tastes like Pepto-Bismol!” as if that were a bad thing.

Do you remember the peanut butter filled Ring Dings? Didn’t have the same presence on the palate as the Funny Bone, but not bad.

I am also looking for evidence of the original name of the Ring Ding, the Ring Ding Jr., which was identical to present day Ring Dings (wrapped in foil, of course). I remember the child in the commercial yelling “I want a Ring Ding, Juniorrrrrrr!”

My question is, was there a Ring Ding Sr., presumably larger than the Ring Ding Jr.? Did they drop the word “Junior” after “Senior” was pulled from the market?

Google gives me no answers.

To this day, my wife is unconvinced that there were ever plain Dorito tortilla chips, simply called Doritos. Like many, she is convinced that the “regular” Doritos are Nacho Cheese. I love her anyway.

I want the Ring Dings (and Yodels) wrapped in aluminum foil again. Those were the days. It looked like fine silver to me, when I was a kid ;-)

I have to admit, I didn't know about pre-Nacho Cheese Doritos. That's a shocker.

Did you hear about the success of the Dorito Taco at Taco Bell? It's blown the roof off of sales. I have to try one with the kids. The wife won't go, though...

Can this taco save America?

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