​Hostess will get another life as a public company

NEW YORK - Almost four years after seeking bankruptcy protection under a barrage of labor issues and rapidly changing appetites, the maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs will take the stage once again as a publicly traded company.

Hostess Brands, which first emerged in 1919, has been shuffled between different owners since it sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time in July 2012.

The latest owners, the Apollo Global Management (APO) and Metropoulos & Co., will sell the company for $375 million in cash to Gores Holdings, an acquisition company run by the private equity firm, The Gores Group, the companies said Tuesday. Metropoulos' Daren Metropoulos recently bought Hugh Hefner's Los Angeles mansion.

Many had feared that the Hostess CupCake, a staple in school lunchboxes for decades, was a fading piece of Americana. Those fears, it appears, were premature.