Purina
Original Headquarters: Nashville, Tennessee
Purchased By: Bridgestone
Country: Japan
Nestle’s brand is more commonly connected with food than pet products, but that didn’t stop the Swiss business from purchasing Purina for $10.3 billion in December 2001. Nestle decided to merge its original pet food company, Friskies PetCare, with Purina. In 1894, the original founders, William H. Danforth, George Robinson, and William Andrews, started feeding farm animals. They were blissfully ignorant that this simple invention would make them extremely wealthy men. The brand remains a mainstay in many families around the world, not just in America.
Purina
Firestone
Original Headquarters: Nashville, Tennessee
Purchased By: Bridgestone
Country: Japan
Firestone Tire was offered a merger with Italian manufacturer Pirelli in 1988, but the transaction did not work out. Instead, Firestone agreed to sell to Bridgestone Corp. The Tokyo-based corporation spent $2.6 million on the acquisition, which equates to $80 per share. At the time, it helped Bridgestone become the country’s second-largest tire maker. “The Bridgestone offer achieves our goal of increasing shareholder value and will significantly improve the employment security and career opportunities available to the men and women employed by Firestone’s existing businesses,” Firestone said in a statement published in the Los Angeles Times.
Firestone
