As Poet goes ethanol shopping, VeraSun Energy gets an offer

Journal & Courier staff and wire reports

The first salvo may have been fired this week in a long-awaited shakeout for the U.S. ethanol industry.

VeraSun Energy, the nation's No. 2 ethanol producer, announced that it had received an unsolicited takeover bid one month after seeking bankruptcy protection, and just hours after the nation's biggest producer, Poet LLC, said it was talking with other companies about buyouts.