Acquisitions . Nabisco occupied the building until the late 1940s or early 50s when it became a wholesale furniture place named Purse & Co. The National Biscuit Company acquired the Shredded Wheat Company, maker of
Triscuit and
Shredded Wheat cereal, and Christie, Brown & Company of
Toronto in 1928, but all of the Nabisco cookie and cracker products in Canada still use the name Christie. It also acquired F.H. Bennett Company, maker of
Milk-Bone dog biscuits, in 1931. Williams continued to operate as a separate
subsidiary. Nabisco sold Williams to
Beecham Group in 1982 after nearly a decade of slumping sales. In 1981, Nabisco merged with
Standard Brands, maker of
Planters Nuts,
Baby Ruth and
Butterfinger candy bars, Royal gelatin, Fleischmann's and Blue Bonnet margarines, amongst others. The company was then renamed Nabisco Brands, Inc. At that time, it also acquired the
Life Savers brand from the
E.R. Squibb Company, makers of
Bubble Yum & Care-free gum. Commercials were revised as a result of the merger by January 1983.
R. J. Reynolds merger In 1985, Nabisco was bought by
R.J. Reynolds, forming "RJR Nabisco". After three years of mixed results, the company became one of the hotspots in the 1980s
leveraged buyout mania. The company was in auction with two bidders:
F. Ross Johnson, the company's president and CEO, and
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a private equity partnership. The company was sold to KKR in what was then the biggest leveraged buyout in history, described in the book
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and a subsequent
film.
Subsequent acquisitions and divestitures In 1989, RJR Nabisco Inc. sold its
Chun King foods division to
Yeo Hiap Seng Limited and Fullerton Holdings Pte. Ltd for $52 million to reduce its debt from its $24.5 billion buyout by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. In December 1989, RJR Nabisco sold its Del Monte canned fruits and vegetables business in South America to
Polly Peck International PLC. One year later, in 1990 RJR Nabisco sold Curtiss Candy, which owned the Baby Ruth and Butterfinger brands, to
Nestlé. RJR also sold LU, Belin and other European biscuit brands to
Groupe Danone, only reunited in 2007 after Nabisco's present parent,
Kraft Foods, bought Danone's biscuit operations for €5.3 billion. In 1994, RJR sold its breakfast cereal business (primarily the Shredded Wheat franchise) to
Kraft Foods Inc. and the international licenses to
General Mills, which later became part of the
Cereal Partners Worldwide joint venture with Nestlé. Also in 1994, RJR acquired
Rose Knox's Knox gelatin and integrated the
Shredded wheat franchise into the
Post Foods portfolio. Post continues to sell the product today. In 1995, Nestlé agreed to buy the Ortega Mexican foods business from Nabisco Inc. That same year, RJR-Nabisco also acquired the North American margarine and table spreads business of Kraft foods. This purchase included
Parkay, Touch of Butter and
Chiffon. In 1998, Nabisco Holdings announced the sale of its margarine and egg substitute business to
ConAgra. In 1997, the brands of Fleishmann's, Blue Bonnet and Parkay had sales of $480 million. It also sold its College Inn broth brand to HJ Heinz and its Venezuelan Del Monte operations to Del Monte Foods. In 1999, RJR Nabisco's food and tobacco empire fell apart when they sold its international tobacco division to Japan Tobacco for $7.8 billion. In 2000 Nabisco Holdings together with several investors (as Finalrealm) acquired
United Biscuits, As part of the transaction, United Biscuits acquired Nabisco's European businesses and divested Far East (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) business to Nabisco. Nabisco became a leading shareholder in United Biscuits (the position that was inherited by Kraft Foods until 2006). Nabisco then sold its gum and mint business to
Hershey Foods Corp. in November of this year. The
Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris) acquired Nabisco (sans
Bubble Yum which was sold to
Hershey) in 2000 for about $19.2 billion. Philip Morris then combined Nabisco with Kraft. That acquisition was approved by the
Federal Trade Commission subject to the divestiture of products in five areas: three Jell-O and Royal brands types of products (dry-mix gelatin dessert, dry-mix pudding, no-bake desserts), intense mints (such as Altoids), and baking powder. Kraft Foods, at the time also a subsidiary of Altria, merged with Nabisco. In 2006, Nabisco sold its Milk-Bone pet snacks to Del Monte Foods Co. for $580 million. Altria spun-off Kraft Food along with its Nabisco subsidiary in 2007. In January 2007, Kraft sold Cream of Wheat to
B&G Foods. ==Legal battles==