Newell Rubbermaid Buys Jarden, Uniting Two Big Consumer Brands

Martin Franklin (left), Jarden founder and CEO, and Newell Rubbermaid President and CEO Michael Polk are interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after their announcement that the companies are merging.

Richard Drew/AP

Newell Rubbermaid said today that it will acquire Jarden Corp., paying nearly $16 billion to acquire all of its stock and debt.

The deal brings together two companies with numerous familiar consumer brands under one roof, creating a single entity to be known as Newell Brands.

Started in 1903, Newell Rubbermaid has grown over the years through repeated acquisitions, and now owns such familiar brands as Lenox tools, Graco baby strollers, Papermate pens and Calphalon cookware.

Florida-based Jarden owns 120 brands of its own, including Crock-Pot cookware, Aerobed mattresses and Sunbeam irons.

"The combination of these two great companies creates a $16 billion consumer goods company with incredible potential to grow and create value," said Michael B. Polk, Newell Rubbermaid president and chief executive officer, who will head the new company. He added:

"The scale of our combined businesses in key categories, channels and geographies creates a much broader canvas on which to leverage our advantaged set of brand development and commercial capabilities for accelerated growth and margin expansion."

Formed in 2001, Jarden is smaller than Newell Rubbermaid, but it has grown quickly, according to The Financial Times:

"The deal is a crowning moment for Jarden's founder, Martin Franklin, who turned a tiny canning company into a $10 billion conglomerate, owning a range of seemingly unrelated branded goods including baseball mitts by Rawlings and scented candles from the Yankee Candle Company."

The combination of the two companies is the latest in a series of mergers this year, according to Rich Jeanneret, vice chairman of transaction advisory services for EY Americas, in an interview with NPR.

"U.S. deal values rose a staggering 55.1 percent in 2015 to a record high at $2.3 trillion, compared to $1.5 trillion in 2014," he said.