Purina Mergers and Acquisitions

The Purina Company began in 1875 under the name Nestlé Company, and has continued to be in existence for over 80 years. During this time, several mergers and acquisitions have occurred for various reasons. The mergers and acquisitions have ranged from pet food to other business acquisitions such as Continental Banking, a National Hockey League Franchise, and Eveready Battery. Nestle also made an impact by entering the pet care business in 1985 by acquiring Carnation that gave them ownership of Friskies®, Fancy Feast®, and Mighty Dog® brands. They also acquired Golden Cat Corporation, which makes the Tidy Cat® brand cat litter as well as Alpo® brand dog food. All of which, helped to propel Purina to be named at the top of the list of pet care companies in the areas of sales, volume, and market share (Nestle, 2013). The merger that had the most impact on the company was the combining of Nestlé 's Friskies products with Ralston Purina 's products. The merger is a horizontal merger because both firms produce and sell similar products in the same geographic area and as a result eliminates competition between the two firms (Legal-Dictionary, 2013). This merger created a combination of a worldwide competitive leader in the pet care business with one of the largest pet food companies in the United States. The Purina and Friskies merger also helped Nestlé Purina to place the company in the midst of the top leaders in the pet products industry (Nestle, 2013). According to company leaders, Purina went through a period of several acquisitions in the 1990s in an effort to remain successful in the center of competitive environments that were constantly changing. After the Friskies merger, they grew, and acquired Golden Cat Corporation, a top vendor of cat box filler in North America as well as a purchase of Canbrand, another company in the cat box filler industry. Of course, there were other acquisitions that indicated Purina’s growing existence as a top

References: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Types+of+Mergers http://www.nestlepurina.com/_res/pdf/sharedvalue.pdf http://nestlepurinacareers.com/AboutNestle/History.aspx http://www.slideshare.net/KDSdesign/nestl-purina-campaign