Kraft Foods has reached a tentative deal for a friendly takeover of Cadbury of Britain, agreeing in principle to pay about $19 billion in cash and stock for the confectioner, people briefed on the matter said on Monday. 
 
 Barring any last-minute complications — these people cautioned that the talks could still fall apart — the deal would create a global food giant that would unite Kraft and its Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers with Cadbury and its Trident gum and Dairy Milk chocolates. Together, the two companies would have more than $50 billion in revenue and a big presence in markets globally. 
 
 Over the last decade, food companies have sought to gain scale by combining with each other, most recently with Mars buying the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company in 2008 for $23 billion. 
 
 The tentative deal for Cadbury would end a four-month battle for control of the British candy maker, one in which Cadbury executives accused Kraft of showing “contempt” with an undervalued offer. 
 
 Under the terms of the proposal, Kraft will pay 840 pence ($13.70) for each Cadbury share, while Cadbury will pay out a special dividend of 10 pence a share. The offer is about a 5 percent premium over Cadbury’s closing share price of 807.5 pence on Monday. The majority of the increase was in the cash component, which was raised to £5 a Cadbury share, from £3, a person briefed on the matter said. 
 
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 The agreement is expected to be announced as soon as Tuesday, this person said, which is the last day Kraft can raise its offer under British takeover rules. 
 
 Spokesmen for Cadbury and Kraft declined to comment on Monday. 
 
 The deal will draw to a close an often acrimonious takeover battle between the two food companies, one that began with Kraft making public an unsolicited $16.7 billion bid for Cadbury in early September. The Cadbury management quickly derided the offer as too low and dismissed the prospect of being absorbed into what it called a slow-growing food conglomerate. 
 
 Most of Cadbury’s major shareholders resisted Kraft’s original offer, with just 1.5 percent having accepted by an earlier January deadline. Many are likely to be swayed by a recommendation from Cadbury’s board now that Kraft has addressed a common complaint by raising the cash portion of its bid. 
 
 A takeover of the 186-year-old Cadbury, especially by an American giant like Kraft, will most likely send shudders throughout Britain. Politicians and unions have pointed to both a loss of jobs — the Unite labor union has estimated that as many as 30,000 jobs could be lost — and of national pride. 
 
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 Cadbury has argued repeatedly that it would prefer to remain independent, pointing to faster-than-expected success in its turnaround program. But its executives have acknowledged that Kraft’s bid put the company in play and they would consider any offer made at the right price. 
 
 From the beginning, speculation mounted among investors that another bidder could step in, forcing Kraft to raise its original offer. Representatives for Cadbury have held talks with Hershey, the American company that Cadbury had viewed as a preferable merger partner, according to people briefed on the matter. 
 
 For Hershey, buying Cadbury would prevent it from being relegated to a mostly domestic company. Hershey moved closer to making a bid in recent days, lining up more than $10 billion in financing, these people said. 
 
 Hershey had been waiting for Kraft to unveil its final offer on Tuesday before it made its final decision on a bid, but analysts have said that Hershey would most likely be unable to top the much larger Kraft in a bidding war. Other potential suitors, including Nestlé of Switzerland and Ferrero of Italy, dropped out. 
 
 Despite Kraft’s strong desire to gain control of Cadbury, its chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, vowed to keep the company disciplined in its bidding and to maintain its investment-grade credit rating. Still, Kraft began raising its original offer earlier this month, increasing the cash portion of its bid after selling its North American frozen pizza business to Nestlé for $3.7 billion. Ms. Rosenfeld met with Cadbury shareholders in London last week to solicit their opinions. 
 
 Others have sounded notes of caution. Warren E. Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is Kraft’s largest shareholder, delivered an unusually public admonishment, warning Kraft to avoid overdiluting its shareholders by issuing too many new shares. 
 
 William A. Ackman, who runs the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management and has been amassing a big position in Kraft, echoed concerns about shareholder dilution, though he said he supported the company’s takeover effort. 

 Cadbury will accept defeat in its battle to stay independent today by recommending a £12bn takeover from US rival Kraft that threatens to reignite a fierce debate about the vulnerability of British industry. 
 
 The 186-year-old chocolate maker decided to throw in the towel late last night after a large foreign shareholder joined hedge funds in indicating it would accept an improved offer from Kraft, and the prospect of a rival bid from Hershey faded. Cadbury's board, led by chairman Roger Carr, will announce its decision to recommend the revised 850p-a-share bid to all shareholders through a ­statement to the stock exchange this morning, according to sources close to the company. 
 
 Although a board recommendation is not binding, it is highly unusual for a ­company to resist a hostile takeover once its management has capitulated. 
 
 The confectionery giant joins a list of British industrial names to have fallen to foreign takeovers in similar circumstances in recent years. More than 50 ­leading companies have gone, including BAA, Boots, Cazenove, Corus, ICI, Jaguar Land Rover, P&O, Pilkington and Scottish Power. 
 
 Until now Cadbury had fought a public campaign to preserve its independence, attracting support from Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, who warned Kraft to expect "huge opposition" from the ­government if it wanted to make a "fast buck" by buying Cadbury. 
 
 His intervention is ­understood to have rattled Kraft's chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, who recently met shareholders in London, but the US company chose to negotiate a raised offer after calculating that the political risk was manageable. 
 
 Cadbury unions have warned that up to 30,000 jobs would be put at risk by the deal as Kraft would be weighed down by some £22bn in debt. Kraft has a record of aggressive cost-cutting, and the union Unite said that between 2004 and 2008 it shed 19,000 jobs and closed 35 sites to help reduce its debt. 
 
 Today's bid of 850p-a-share (including a 10p dividend) is an increase on Kraft's previous offer of around 770p in cash and shares, which Carr had previously described as "derisory". Nonetheless it is at the low end of many independent experts' predictions for an agreed price and comes after Cadbury's chief executive, Todd Spitzer, appeared to suggest he thought its shares were worth £10 each. 
 
 A source close to Cadbury said the decision had been taken with "a heavy heart" but followed advice from its investment bankers that any increase in Kraft's bid beyond 830p would succeed. 
 
 More than a quarter of Cadbury shares are now in the hands of hedge funds which bought them in the hope of a deal. The final straw came when Franklin Templeton, a large US mutual fund with a 7% stake, indicated it would accept 830p. 
 
 The circumstances of the defeat are likely to reopen a debate about the role of hedge funds and other investors during takeovers. Lord Myners, the City minister, has been vocal in his criticism of short-termism among institutional fund managers. Cadbury was the first big test of a supposed new mood after the financial crash and raised strong emotions because of its history as a progressive employer, supporter of fair trade and proponent of good corporate governance. 
 
 Nevertheless, its management's actions appear to have followed a well-worn path in such situations. Carr cut his teeth as chief executive of Williams, an industrial conglomerate also sold overseas, and worked with Sir Nigel Rudd, who recommended the sale of Boots two years ago. 
 
 Under Takeover Panel rules, Kraft had until midnight tonight to raise its offer. There is still a chance that Hershey may intervene, but sources close to Cadbury last night said that was unlikely.
– Kraft has won a sweet victory in its 4-month-long battle to take over Cadbury, according to sources who expect a deal to be announced today, barring last-minute complications. The British chocolate maker's board has agreed to accept Kraft's improved offer of roughly $19 billion in cash and stock in a buyout that will create a food industry behemoth with sales of over $50 billion a year, insiders tell the New York Times. The decision to stop fighting Kraft's takeover attempt was taken with "a heavy heart," a source at Cadbury tells the Guardian, but the board was left with little choice after shareholders indicated they would accept the higher offer. The takeover bid was strongly opposed by unions, who fear cost-cutting and massive job losses will result, and by British politicians who worry that the foreign takeover will dent national pride.