If you’ve never heard of a company called Jarden, there’s a good chance at least that you’ve heard of its brands. There are 120 of them, including Yankee Candle, Ball mason jars, Bicycle playing cards, and Coleman camping gear—and they soon will be moving under a new roof.
The roof belongs to the house of Newell Rubbermaid, which already makes, among other products, Sharpie markers, Elmer’s glue, Graco baby strollers, Calphalon cookware, and Rubbermaid storage containers. It announced plans today (Dec. 14) to buy Jarden for $15.4 billion in cash and stock.
The deal would create a $16 billion firm called Newell Brands, and stretch Newell‘s brand portfolio from 28 names to more than 150. While some of the names imported from Jarden’s portfolio will be complimentary to Newell Rubbermaid brands, in categories like office supplies, kitchenware, and baby gear, the acquisition will also expand Newell into new areas like kitchen appliances (Jarden owns Mr. Coffee, Sunbeam, and Crock-Pot products, for example) and sporting goods (Jarden also makes Marmot ski jackets, Rawlings baseball gloves, and Ride snowboards, among other goods geared to the outdoors).
Newell’s list of brands will be longer than that of larger rival Procter & Gamble—the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers last year began shedding businesses (paywall) with an eye to trimming its roster of brands down to about 75. But Newell’s brand count will still be well below that of Unilever, which has more than 1,000 brands around the world.