Coca Cola to Acquire Energy Brands for $4.1 billion

The Coca-Cola Company today announced that it had agreed to acquire privately-held Energy Brands, Inc., known as glacéau, the maker of trendy vitaminwater.  The purchase price is $4.1 billion in cash. The Indian company Tata Tea acquired a 30 per cent stake in Energy Brands for $677 million in August of 2006.  It will earn a handsome return on the transaction, doubling its money in about a year.

The deal is not a surprise:  it had been reported earlier in the week that Coca Cola had previously filed a Hart-Scott-Rodino Act notification, a required antitrust filing for the transaction.   It also appears that Coca-Cola, which makes the Dasani water brand and has rights to license and distribute Dannon and Evian water in the United States, does not expect a full antitrust review.  Such a review would postpone completion of the transaction until the Fall or later, but Coca Cola announced in its press release that it expects the transaction to close this summer.