Smithfield Foods completes beef sale to JBS Smithfield Foods Inc. said Thursday it has completed the sale of its beef business to Brazilian beef giant JBS SA. The deal worth $565 million in cash received clearance by regulators on Monday when they said they wouldn't challenge the merger, which pairs Smithfield Beef Group Inc., the nation's fifth-largest beef producer, with JBS, the nation's third-largest beef producer. The Department of Justice said it wouldn't challenge that deal, but it did file a lawsuit Monday to block JBS from buying the nation's fourth-largest beef processor, National Beef Packing Co. of Kansas City, Mo. Federal regulators and attorneys general from 13 states said that deal, worth $560 million in cash and stock, could push up costs for consumers and drive down prices paid to ranchers and feedlots. At that point, both JBS and Smithfield said they'd work to close their deal immediately....