Are your favourite brands as independent as you think they are? From skincare products to snack foods, read on to discover the real names behind the brands we love. All dollar values in US dollars.
One glance at Aussie hair products and the kangaroo logo would tell you that the company’s products have a hint of the Australian about them, including all-Australian ingredients such as jojoba seed oil and eucalyptus. But did you know that the company was actually founded by an American businessman in 1979? And Aussie remains in American hands today as it was snapped up by the multibillion-dollar corporation Procter & Gamble in 2003.
Coca-Cola isn't just famous for producing some of the world's best-loved soft drinks – it's also the brand behind the likes of Cappy. Available in countries all over the world, the fruit juice claims to contain more than 99% natural juice and no added sugar.
Messaging app WhatsApp launched in 2009, and two years later it hit a record one billion messages in a single day. The app’s user base grew and grew as additional features such as group chats, voice notes, and read receipts were added into the mix. Facebook (now Meta) was quick to pounce on the app's success, acquiring it for $16 billion (£11.7bn) in 2014.
In 2007, baby product company Gerber was acquired for $5.5 billion (£4.3bn) by Nestlé. Before buying the company, Nestlé wasn’t a big player in the US baby food market, mainly supplying families in the Brazilian and Chinese markets.
But with that acquisition Nestlé Nutrition went global and enjoyed total annual revenues of 8.43 billion Swiss francs ($9.47bn/£6.95bn). By 2020, that figure had jumped to 12.16 billion Swiss francs ($13.3bn/£9.5bn) worldwide.
YouTube is the world’s best-known video-sharing site and Google snapped it up in 2006 for $1.65 billion (£939m).
In 2020, Google parent company Alphabet revealed that the site had generated some $15 billion (£11bn) in the previous year, which made up around 10% of the company’s revenue.
Some of Britain’s most iconic cars have been made by Jaguar Land Rover, but since 2008 the company has been owned by Indian firm Tata Motors. Tata paid $2.3 billion (£1.2bn) for the company. While the brand has struggled during the height of the coronavirus pandemic like the rest of the auto industry, it had returned to profitability by September 2020.
Aside from selling soft drinks, PepsiCo is also a multinational food and beverage company and owns dozens of brands. Among them is Stacy’s Pita Chips, which was acquired by the firm in 2006 for an undisclosed amount, joining a long list of small companies to be accused of selling out to the mainstream market.
Disney bought the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1995 after years of trying to poach the broadcaster through a number of different deals.
ABC originally helped Disney to fund the building of Disneyland in exchange for a weekly Sunday night show, which was also called Disneyland. ABC then went on to air The Mickey Mouse Club and, years later, Disney acquired the media company for $19 billion (£12bn).
Household cleaning product company Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, which markets itself as being ‘earth-friendly’, is produced by The Caldrea Company, but in 2008 Caldrea was acquired by S.C. Johnson, the global cleaning product supplier.
Another 'earth-friendly' skincare brand to have sold itself to a larger corporation is Burt’s Bees, which was bought by Clorox in 2007 for $913 million (£465m) in today’s money. At the time, sceptics worried the acquisition would affect the ethical nature of Burt’s Bees, but it soon emerged that Burt’s had actually helped to enhance the sustainability of Clorox and pushed for more sustainable sourcing of ingredients.
Also on the list of small companies sold to large corporations is Seeds of Change, an organic seed and food company that was bought by Mars in 1997 for an undisclosed amount.
A few years ago Mars launched a Seeds of Change accelerator programme, intended to fast-track healthy and sustainable food start-ups into successful companies.
Eager to keep its brand range looking balanced with a portfolio of healthy products, PepsiCo bought Naked Juice in 2007. The acquisition followed on from Coca-Cola’s 2001 purchase of fellow juice brand Odwalla.
PepsiCo certainly seems to have won this one, with Naked Juice making up 65.1% of refrigerated juice sales in America in 2019, while Odwalla made up just 3.8% of the market, according to Statista. Odwalla was then discontinued by its parent company in July 2020 after Coca-Cola decided it needed to "prune" its business.
UK brand Simple Skincare was acquired by the British multinational company Unilever back in 2010, adding to Unilever’s vast range of hugely successful brands.
Simple was originally bought by Alberto-Culver for £240 million ($339m) in December 2009, but Unilever snatched it up just six months later.
Buying social reading site Goodreads was an attractive deal for Amazon in 2013, as it had more than 10 million members sharing their opinions on books they were reading – useful information for the company that went from a garage in 1994 to the world’s biggest book retailer. Amazon allegedly paid around $150 million (£110m) for the website.
You might be surprised to learn that Quaker is also owned by PepsiCo. It acquired the oats company back in 2001 in exchange for $13.4 billion (£9.2bn) in stock because it wanted to add Quaker’s subsidiary Gatorade to its collection of sports drinks.
Like Naked Juice, Quaker has also provided balance for the brand, as it serves as a healthier counterpart to other subsidiaries such as Frito-Lay, which owns a number of salty, and not-so-nutritious, snack brands including Cheetos.
Mars is known for its confectionary products, but it doesn’t just produce human treats – it’s also the company behind some of the biggest names in pet food, including Pedigree, Cesar, Royal Canin, and Whiskas. In fact, Mars Petcare is the most profitable pet food company in the world by quite a margin. The company also owns more than 2,000 pet hospitals, and employs more than 85,000 Petcare associates across the world.
Annie’s, the natural and organic specialty food-maker, joined a far larger group after General Mills bought the Berkeley-based firm in 2014 for $820 million (£597m).
Jimmy Rosenberg, who also founded Naked Juice, sold his other juice brand Evolution Fresh to Starbucks for $30 million (£21.8m) in 2011. Starbucks opened its first Evolution Fresh store in March 2012, but there were concerns that the juice bars would have much lower margins than Starbucks’ coffee shops in a highly competitive market. Those concerns weren’t unfounded, and in 2017 the company gave up on the concept, choosing instead just to stock the juices in its Starbucks outlets.
Though Evolution Fresh is still distributed to Starbucks stores, the juice company is now owned by the refrigerated beverage business Bolthouse Farms.
Kellogg's might be the household name when it comes to cereal, but it also owns some of our favourite snack brands too. Pringles, Nutri-Grain, and Town House are some of the brands that fall under the Kellogg’s umbrella.
After competing with Instagram in the social media sphere since the app’s inception in 2010, Facebook (now Meta) was quick to acquire the photo-sharing app just two years later for $1 billion (£627m).
Back in 2019, it was reported that Facebook owned the four most downloaded apps of the last decade in the form of Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, which caused concerns over the company’s apparent monopoly over social media users’ data.
In 1893 a small hotel opened in Cisco, Texas, and over the last 128 years it has evolved into the sprawling hospitality conglomerate that is Hilton. Company founder Conrad Hilton had long kept a photo of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York under his desk, inscribed with the words "The greatest of them all", and in 1949 he was able to add the hotel to his growing portfolio.
There are now more than 30 Waldorf properties across the world, and the Waldorf Astoria brand is considered to be the most luxurious brand in the Hilton portfolio.
ABC had purchased ESPN in 1984, meaning that when Disney took ABC on board the sports channel came included in the package.
The cost of the deal wasn't revealed, but in 2014 ESPN was valued at $51 billion (£37.1bn) and in the same year was named the world’s most valuable media company by Forbes.
Motorola was the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, but when Nokia came onto the scene in the early noughties demand for Motorola products started to dry up and Apple’s entry into the market then pushed the company further out of the loop. In 2012, Google acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion (£7.8bn), primarily to gain its patent portfolio as it started to dominate the Android market.
Google was then quick to sell Motorola off again, and the company was bought by Lenovo in 2014 for $2.91 billion (£1.7bn), although Google shrewdly kept hold of the patents it had acquired.
Slowly latching onto a number of organic brands, General Mills also acquired Humm Foods, the parent company of energy bar manufacturer Lärabar, in 2008 for around $56 million (£28m).
Coca-Cola purchased Honest Tea in 2011 for an undisclosed sum of money. This move triggered a number of calls to boycott the tea brand after its new parent donated money to defeat Proposition 37 – the GMO labelling initiative in California, which would have required brands to label medically engineered food.
IKEA isn’t just responsible for the DIY homeware stores that the world knows and loves – it also owns the Moxy chain of hotels. In partnership with Marriott, the Swedish flat-pack giant controls all 60 of the swanky millennial-targeted lodgings across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Campbells bought famed Austrian-American chef Wolfgang Puck’s eponymous soup business in 2008 in an agreement that allowed Campbells to use the brand on soup, stock and broth products. Although the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Wolfgang Puck was averaging sales of around $22 million (£11m) at the time of the acquisition.
In another big tech deal, fitness tracker titan Fitbit was bought up by Google in 2021 for $2.1 billion (£1.5bn), following lots of debate around how Google could access users’ data. Google countered concerns by stressing that it was specifically Fitbit’s hardware that had made the acquisition appealing and that user privacy would be maintained.
Organic cereal brand Cascadian Farm was also poached by General Mills for an undisclosed figure in 1999. There was controversy a decade later when people noticed that the sugar content in the company’s Purely O’s had tripled since the acquisition, prompting Cascadian Farm to change the recipe back to one gram of the sweet stuff per serving.
Granola company Bear Naked has been owned by Kellogg’s since 2007 when it was bought by Kashi Company, a subsidiary of the cereal giant. The founder of Bear Naked, Kelly Flatley, started and sold the business for $60 million (£30m) before she hit 30.
Business social network LinkedIn was officially launched in 2003. By 2016, it had reportedly gained 433 million users worldwide. Many were surprised when Microsoft splashed out $26.2 billion (£19.2bn) for the site that year, making LinkedIn its priciest acquisition ever. The move paid off, however, as its user base grew an additional 50% in the next three years and revenue increased by 28% between 2018 and 2019, both of which gave a welcome boost to Microsoft’s revenues.
Unsurprisingly Ralph Lauren Corporation owns and runs its eponymous designer clothing brand, but its fragrance division, including the Polo collection, comes under the jurisdiction of beauty behemoth L’Oréal. The perfume brand is in good company as L’Oréal is one of the world’s biggest cosmetics conglomerates, also owning the likes of Maybelline New York, NYX, Garnier, Lancôme, and nail polish brand essie.
Skin care brand Aveeno was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 1999 for an undisclosed amount. Like many subsidiaries of the healthcare giant, Aveeno came under fire when Johnson & Johnson was accused of including potentially cancer-causing chemicals in some of its baby products. The most recent allegation of Johnson & Johnson products containing formaldehyde came in 2019, but the company strongly rejected the claim. Other notable Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries include Band-Aid, Neutrogena, and Benadryl.
Berkshire Hathaway acquired Duracell from Procter & Gamble in 2014, in a complex deal that saw Berkshire pay P&G $4.7 billion (£2.8bn) of the shares it owned in the company instead of paying in cash. P&G then put $1.8 billion (£1bn) into Duracell before paying the remainder in 2015. It may seem a little convoluted, but it helped Berkshire Hathaway and its investor extraordinaire CEO Warren Buffett avoid a hefty tax bill.
Adding to its range of healthier drinks, Coca-Cola also purchased vitaminwater as part of the acquisition of Energy Brands, an 'enhanced water' distributor, in 2007. It paid around $4.1 billion (£2bn) in cash, but Coca-Cola later faced a lawsuit about claims it was misleading buyers by describing vitaminwater as a “healthy drink”.
The Body Shop first made a name for itself as a small beauty and body care shop in Brighton, England in 1976. Its success in the natural cosmetics world attracted the attention of leading French cosmetics conglomerate L’Oréal, which bought the company in 2006. The now-global chain was then acquired by Brazilian group Natura for €1 billion ($1.2bn/£891m) in 2017 and currently has stores in more than 100 countries.
Video call software Skype was founded in 2003. Just two years later, eBay paid $2.5 billion (£1.6bn) plus incentives for the communication tech. After a series of complicated deals with the original owners and a consortium of buyers, Microsoft acquired the entirety of Skype for $8.5 billion (£5.2bn) in 2011.
Supermarket Whole Foods has always prided itself on the ethical reputation that comes with selling natural and organic products, and so there was a flurry of controversy when e-commerce behemoth Amazon took over the company in 2017 for $13.7 billion (£11bn). One of Amazon’s promises upon taking over the grocery store was that products would become cheaper and that customers with Prime membership could secure additional discounts on their shopping.
Despite being Ireland’s favourite drink and the only acceptable beverage for toasting St. Patrick every 17 March, Guinness is now owned by British multinational alcohol company Diageo. The parent company was formed in 1997 when Guinness Brewery merged with English leisure conglomerate Grand Metropolitan to form GMG Brands, which would later change its name to Diageo in a marketing overhaul. Diageo’s portfolio also includes vodka brands Smirnoff and Cîroc, Captain Morgan rum, and Irish cream liqueur Baileys.
In 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the tech giant has bought around 100 companies over the last six years. Its most famous acquisition ever is arguably Beats by Dre, the headphone company co-founded by hip-hop star Dr Dre after he disliked Apple's earbuds, which it bought for $3.2 billion (£2.5bn) in 2014.
Founded back in 1978 by self-confessed "hippy capitalists" Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in a converted petrol station in Vermont, their eponymous ice cream brand was bought by British-based consumer goods company Unilever in 2013 for $326 million (£200m). At the time, there was a lot of talk about the duo "selling out" their ideals as well as their business but it has continued to thrive under corporate ownership. Ben & Jerry’s still prides itself on championing social and environmental causes such as Black Lives Matter and GMO labelling.
Mondelez, formerly Kraft, bought UK confectionery giant Cadbury in 2010 for £11.5 billion ($17.2bn). The deal was made under controversial circumstances however, as Cadbury had previously been resistant to the takeover due to feeling “undervalued”. Kraft initially agreed to honour Cadbury’s commitment to only using Fairtrade cocoa beans, but in 2016 the company confirmed that it was no longer working with the foundation and, in 2019, its signature brand Dairy Milk lost its Fairtrade certification.
In 1994 Starbucks struck a deal with PepsiCo to market and sell the ready-to-drink Starbucks range in North America under the North American Coffee Partnership (NACP). The aim was to combine Starbucks' recipe and Pepsi's distribution system to sell the branded cold drinks in supermarkets and stores. As of 2015 it had achieved $1.5 billion (£1bn) in annual sales, and that year the partnership expanded to Latin America.
Similar deals have been struck between Starbucks and businesses in other markets, for example in Japan Suntory has been selling the brand since 2005, and in Europe Arla Foods has been selling the ready-to-drink Starbucks products since 2010.
Workplace messaging tool Slack began life in 2009 as an internal tool for Stewart Butterfield's gaming company Tiny Speck, but was later launched as a separate product in 2013. By 2019, when it went public, Slack was valued at around $20 billion (£14.3bn). But in December 2020 it was revealed that software company Salesforce was buying Slack for $27.7 billion (£19.9bn), a deal which Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff called a "match made in heaven".
Many see the buyout as a way to take on Microsoft and its own messaging service Microsoft Teams, which boomed during the pandemic. Microsoft had toyed with buying Slack in 2016, but eventually decided to create its own platform. Today, 10 times more people use Teams than Slack, but now a giant such as Salesforce is in the driving seat it remains to be seen if that could change.
In September 2021, it was announced that Bill Gates' investment fund Cascade Investments had bought a controlling stake in the Four Seasons hotel chain. The $2.2 billion (£1.6bn) deal has given Cascade a 71.25% stake in the business. It previously owned 47.5% but increased its share by purchasing half of the stake owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. There are more than 120 Four Seasons hotels across 47 countries, including Azerbaijan, Tanzania, and Mauritius.
Known for its opulent prints and eye-catching colours, the Italian fashion house Versace was bought by Michael Kors Holdings in 2018. Donatella Versace, the sister of founder Gianni, who was murdered in 1997, remained the company's Creative Director. Michael Kors Holdings, which has since changed its name to Capri Holdings Ltd, had previously bought luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo for £897 million ($1.2bn) in 2017.
The second largest airline in the UK fully partnered with Spain’s flag carrier airline Iberia in 2010, and both are now part of the International Airlines Group (IAG). Since the merger, Aer Lingus, LEVEL, and Vueling have also been added to the conglomerate’s portfolio.
Innocent Drinks is known for its witty advertising featuring its 100% pure fruit smoothies and juices, but did you know the company is owned by Coca-Cola? The drinks empire already owned 58% of Innocent before it took over the rest of the company in 2013 for an estimated £100 million ($137m). And, much like Honest Tea, the smoothie makers then faced concerns its drinks were much less ‘innocent’ under Coca-Cola’s stewardship.
Coca-Cola completed its purchase of Costa Limited in January 2019 for a hefty $4.9 billion (£3.6bn). The UK coffee shop chain was previously owned by one of the nation’s biggest hospitality companies, Whitbread, and already operated in 30 countries when it was sold, giving Coca-Cola a big share of the global coffee business.
British breakfast staple Weetabix has been made in the UK since 1932, and was family-owned until 2004. China’s Bright Food bought a 60% stake in the company in 2012 and, although sales in China doubled following the purchase, the UK still accounts for most sales. Weetabix was then put up for sale once again in January 2017 and now belongs to US firm Post Holdings after a £1.4 billion ($1.9bn) acquisition deal.
Scottish & Newcastle, the brewery behind the famous English dark beer Newcastle Brown Ale, was bought by Dutch giant Heineken in 2008 after a long haggling process over the price.
In April 2021, UK-based fast food chain Leon was bought for £100 million ($139m) by EG Group, a fast-expanding conglomerate which started with just one petrol station in the UK but now has more than 5,900 sites globally. The firm also bought UK supermarket chain Asda from Walmart in late 2020, as well as its fuel stations, and owns America's Schrader Oil, Cumberland Farms, Certified Oil, Fastrac, Kwik Shop, Loaf 'N Jug, Minit Mart, Quik Stop, Tom Thumb, and Turkey Hill. EG Group's latest deal with Leon sees it take on 42 company-owned stores and 29 franchises, and EG is planning to open 20 Leon outlets a year from 2022.
Luxury car brand Bentley isn't quite as British as it seems. The manufacturer has been a subsidiary of Volkswagen since 1998, after the German car corporation outbid BMW with an offer of £430 million ($594m). It's thought that Volkswagen invested around $2 billion (£1.5bn) to boost the Bentley brand after its takeover was complete.
The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in London's Mayfair back in the 1970s and the entertainment brand has since grown into a global restaurant, hotel, and casino chain with locations in 68 countries. Much of that growth is attributed to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which purchased Hard Rock International in 2007 for nearly $1 billion (£800m), and has been working to expand the brand. The number of hotel rooms alone has grown by more than 375%.
Tom Chappell is the man behind the Tom's of Maine product range of toothpastes, soaps and deodorants that are made using “simple, natural ingredients” derived from plants and minerals. After 35 years in business, he sold the brand to Colgate-Palmolive for $100 million (£80m) in 2006. Chappell and his family retained a small stake in the Tom's brand, and he went on to launch wool apparel retailer Ramblers Way.
Columbia Sportswear scooped up the trademark for Canadian winter boot brand Sorel in 2000 for a mere $8 million (£6.4m) when manufacturer William H. Kaufman went into bankruptcy. Fifteen years later, the Sorel business line accounted for yearly sales of $200 million (£160m) after the new owner started offering more fashionable footwear alongside the iconic Caribou boots.
Now see the product changes and rebrands that failed miserably