The deal would have combined the world’s second-largest candy company, a Kraft Foods spinoff with little business in the United States, with one of the quintessential American brands, whose founding chocolatier’s name adorns theme parks, boarding schools and a small Pennsylvania town calling itself “the sweetest place on earth.”

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Hershey stock closed up nearly 17 percent Thursday, even after it rebuffed Mondelez’s offer, to $113.49. Company shares are now worth about 140 times what they first sold for in 1978. Mondelez stock climbed about 6 percent, to $45.51.

“This is a highly ambitious move by Mondelez given the symbolic status of the Hershey brand in the U.S.,” said Jack Skelly, a food analyst with market researcher Euromonitor.

Hershey’s rejection may not mark the end of any such deal, Skelly added. “Mondelez is nothing if not dogged in its approach to such takeovers.”

Food conglomerates have increasingly bought or absorbed rivals in hopes that they can save money by sharing ingredients and streamlining production. Ketchup giant H.J. Heinz and Kraft Foods Group, two of America’s most iconic food brands, merged last year to create Kraft Heinz, one of the world’s biggest food empires.

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Mondelez’s largely international business would have also found a close complement in Hershey, which makes 85 percent of its sales in North America. Hershey made a third of the chocolates sold in the United States last year, garnering $6 billion in sales of Almond Joys, Reese’s and other sweets, industry data show. The company also commands a strong business in snacks, a market that is expected to grow 2 percent every year in the United States, reaching $40 billion by 2019, Euromonitor estimated last year.

Although the food business is increasingly dominated by multinational brands, Hershey’s sweets still reveal strong ties to the regions where they first took shape. One of the best-selling markets for Lancaster Caramel Crèmes is Lancaster, Pa., where Milton Hershey launched his first successful candy company and began experimenting with coating caramels in chocolate, according to sales data provided to The Washington Post last year. York Peppermint Patties, the company said, still sell extraordinarily well in the Northeast, home to York, Pa., where the candy was created and first produced.

As a candy entrepreneur, Hershey helped transform chocolates in the United States from a novel, upscale luxury to an affordable, regular treat. He was also an early paragon of consistency in manufacturing: A major innovation involved taking cocoa beans — with differing origins and flavors — and blending them to create snacks with unchanging texture, style and taste.

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Mondelez, a considerably newer invention, was created in 2012 when spun off from Kraft Foods’ North American grocery business. But its brands include some of the world’s best-selling snacks, including Chips Ahoy, Oreo and Ritz.

Both companies have pushed to break away from the slow-growing candy business and capture the United States’ burgeoning appetite for healthier snacks. Hershey, best known for its namesake milk chocolate bars, is expanding offerings of fruit-and-nut bars, protein smoothies and sunflower seeds.

The company last year spent more than $200 million to buy Krave, a beef jerky brand, which it has since expanded with flavors such as black cherry barbecue. In August, the company will begin selling Krave protein bars made with ingredients such as dried meat, cranberries and quinoa.

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Any major Hershey decision ultimately must be approved by the Hershey Trust, the charitable trust that wields a weighty chunk of shareholder votes and company stock. That trust also controls a $12 billion charity and some of Hershey’s most high-profile side ventures, including a private school for children from low-income families and a Pennsylvania theme park, Hersheypark.

The trust has been resistant to past takeover attempts, including in 2002, when it abandoned a near-finalized offer from rival candy giant Wm. Wrigley Jr. worth $12.5 billion. Wrigley itself was gobbled up in 2008 with a $23 billion offer from Mars, the maker of M&M’s.