By Aishwarya Kochar
Leading the world’s market has always been the top-notch priority of some of the biggest companies. Here are some of the head-scratching deals made over the years (in ascending order with time and years) to help the big ones get even bigger.
1. Coca- Cola bought Thums-up to compete with Pepsi.
It was during late 1970’s when Indian government issued a proclamation to international companies to sell off 60% of its equity to the Government of India which lead to the American cola giant Coca-Cola to abandon India. After this, Parle brothers Ramesh Chauhan and Prakash Chauhan along with CEO Bhanu Vakil, launched a new soft drink called Thums up which enjoyed a huge monopoly in India due to its distinctive spicy flavour against the indigenous beverages companies. But in 1993 Indian government allowed companies like Coca-cola and Pepsi to re-enter the country after which coca-cola bought Thums up from the Parle brothers to rival against its nemesis Pepsi with two popular soft drinks.
- Google bought Motorola for $12.5B.
Motorola Company originally known as Motorola Mobility was an American telecommunication company which was bought up by Google on August 15, 2011 but eventually Google sold Motorola Mobility to the Chinese company Lenovo for $2.91 billion. Thus Lenovo used Motorola’s named to enter into the main US market. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said that although his company doesn’t have “an effective plan yet,” it has confidence that it can turn the currently unprofitable Motorola’s fortunes around.
3. Facebook bought messaging app WhatsApp for $19bn.
WhatsApp claimed to register one million new users a day and with more than 450 million monthly users and its popularity amongst people looking to avoid text messaging charges, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg described WhatsApp’s services as “incredibly valuable”.
“Facebook right now is preparing for a world in which people care less about Facebook,” said David Berkowitz, an executive of the digital marketing firm MRY. The deal to buy WhatsApp included $4bn in cash and approximately $12bn-worth of Facebook shares, plus an additional $3bn in stock to WhatsApp’s founders and employees at a later date. Looking forward to the story of WhatsApp founders, Brian Acton and Jan Koum (also the CEO), both former employees of Yahoo!, applied for a job on Facebook but got rejected. It was said that Koum thought about the offer for a couple days. And then on, he came over to Zuckerberg’s house. Interrupting Zuckerberg’s Valentine’s dinner with his wife, Priscilla, Koum said yes, he wanted to do the deal.
4. FlipKart to merge with Myntra to compete against Amazon.
Flipkart buying Myntra: its said that this acquisition came as a response to US e-commerce giant Amazon entering and capturing the Indian market. Flipkart has acquired a majority stake in Myntra, valuing the online retailer at $300-$330 million.
