A hostile battle for Bestfoods looks likely after the maker of Skippy peanut butter and Hellmann's mayonnaise rejected an unsolicited $18 billion takeover offer from hyper-acquisitive Anglo- Dutch consumer products behemoth Unilever.

Bestfoods shares are likely to soar today as investors relish the prospect of a pitched hostile takeover battle that could include other giant providers of branded foods, including Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup and Heinz, whose own merger talks with Bestfoods suddenly collapsed last September.

Bestfoods, which as of Tuesday's close had a market value of $14.3 billion, said in a statement that its board "unanimously determined that the Unilever proposal was financially inadequate and not in the best interests of Bestfoods, its shareholders and other constituencies."