Murdock, unhappy with the company's languishing share price, offered $29.50 per share, or a 20.5 percent premium over Dole's closing price Friday. Investors initially pushed Dole's shares to nearly $31 in trading today, but the stock later gave some ground and closed at $29, up $4.51.

Los Angeles County-based Dole has grown from a company supplying basic staples to missionaries in Hawai'i to the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables, operating in 90 countries.

In a letter sent to the board over the weekend, the 78-year-old Murdock said recent efforts to cut costs, diversify its business and invest in additional businesses have had little effect on the stock price.

Murdock also reminded the board that an effort to explore strategic alternatives, including a sale of the company, in 2000, failed.

"I believe that providing a premium to existing shareholders at a fair price and operating Dole Food Co. as a private enterprise is the best alternative given the public market focus on short term earnings and predictable quarterly results," Murdock wrote.

Murdock said the deal would total about $2.5 billion, including assumption of debt.

Dole's directors said they would be meeting over the next several days to establish a special committee to consider Murdock's unsolicited offer.

Andrew Wolf, an analyst at BB&T Capital markets, believes the offer is too low, given his firm's target price of $39 per share for the stock.

"It's at the low end of what we think it's worth," Wolf said.

Wolf said Dole has done a good job of running its businesses, including its plan to cut $200 million a year from its costs. What Dole has not done, he said, is communicate its message to investors.

"They have a very good story, very good fundamentals, but in terms of being out there with shareholders and talking about it, they were very unaggressive," he said.

With sales little changed in the second quarter, Dole increased profit 81 percent to $66.8 million by reducing marketing and manufacturing costs. Dole had net income of $150 million, or $2.67 a share, on sales of about $4.5 billion last year. Sales peaked at about $4.8 billion in 1999.

Murdock said he has financial backing for the takeover from Deutsche Bank AG. His own assets are estimated to be worth $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine's list of the world's billionaires. He couldn't be reached for comment.

Dole's roots go back to about 1851, when Castle & Cooke Inc. was formed by missionaries in Hawai'i. The mercantile company absorbed James Dole's pineapple empire during the Great Depression after Dole defaulted on a loan. Castle & Cooke began using the Dole name on packaging at around that time.

The company's headquarters was moved in 1972 to Westlake Village, Calif.

Murdock entered the picture when his Flexi-Van container leasing company took over Castle & Cooke in 1985. In 1991, the company changed its name to Dole Foods.