Smithfield beef division sold to JBS

Smithfield Foods has sold its beef business to Brazil's JBS.

The deal, worth $565 million in cash, received clearance by regulators on Monday when they said they wouldn't challenge the merger, which pairs Smithfield Beef Group Inc., the nation's fifth-largest beef producer, with JBS, the nation's third-largest beef producer.

The Justice Department, though, is blocking another acquisition by JBS, the #4 beef company, National Beef Packing.

Federal regulators and attorneys general from 13 states said that deal, worth $560 million in cash and stock, could push up costs for consumers and drive down prices paid to ranchers and feedlots.

Smithfield remains the largest pork producer in the country.