This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

Behold the humble potato chip, snack food of the ages. Claimed to have been invented in 1853 in the road house kitchen of Native American George Crum, the potato chip traveled through American snack history in a class of it's own. That is, until in the early 1960s, when it was discovered that you could grind potatoes into a slurry and then press them back into a consumable form.

I sat down one day with a bag of potato chips from Lay's and with a can of Pringles. Lay's are made by Frito-Lay, a property of PepsiCo Inc. ( NYSE: PEP). Pringles are made by Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG). I wanted to compare the two in order to assess their similarities and differences. What I found were two very different snacking sensations although both are derived from the same source. The Lay's ingredient list is simple. They're made with potatoes, oil, and salt, with no preservatives added. The Pringles ingredient list begins with the same potatoes, oil, and salt, but the product also contains at least traces of wheat starch and rice flour in addition to a couple common food chemicals.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) closed at $70.91.

• On 10/1/07 The Financial Times Merger Market reported PG is looking to sell its Duracell unit, as well as its Pringles and Folgers units according to sources close to the matter.
  
• PG overall option implied volatility of 19 is near its 26-week average of 18 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional risk.

Hershey (NYSE: HSY) closed at $47.41.

• HSY Chairman and CEO Rick Lenny resigned.
  
• Alex Brown says: "We retain our Hold opinion, but lower our target from $48 to $45. With CEO Lenny leaving at 2007-end, we believe fundamental pressures and less likelihood of sale point to a lower valuation."
  
• HSY overall option implied volatility of 23 is near its 26-week average of 22 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) currently owns dozens of brands, many of which are household names. From Pampers to Pringles, Crest to Cover Girl, the consumer-products giant has a foothold in many industries, and its 2005 purchase of Gillette merely added to this list. (For a summary of the company's current product lines, click here.)

Now, there is some speculation on Wall Street as to whether Procter & Gamble will sell off some of its brands in an effort to streamline operations and return cash back to company shareholders. While it is pure conjecture at this point -- company officials have not said publicly that they are considering spinning off any brands -- Lehman Brothers analyst Lauren Lieberman told The New York Times that she suspects "there has been an active dialogue within P&G about if, when, and what pieces of its portfolio should be pruned via sale or spin."

Ms. Lieberman ran the numbers, and it appears as though the most likely brands for sale consideration are Duracell, Braun, Folgers (and other coffee), and Pringles (along with other snack lines). The company's pet-food business (which includes the Iams brand) could also be put on the auction block.

Duracell could fetch as much as $4.1 billion (in after-tax proceeds) at auction, while Braun could attract up to $1.5 billion. The snacks and coffee units are both valued around $4.1 billion, while the pet-food business could be sold for $2 billion, Ms. Lieberman said.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.