7 Big American Brands That Quietly Became Foreign-Owned

2. Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods, founded in Virginia in 1936, is the largest pork producer in the United States. It is the quintessential American household product for processed meats. In 2013, WH Group, a $22 billion Chinese meat processing conglomerate, acquired Smithfield for $4.7 billion in what remains the largest Chinese purchase of an American company to date.