Saturday, December 17, 2005

Pepsi passes Coke

Well, not exactly. However, PepsiCo, Inc. passed The Coca-Cola Company this week in market capitalization (the total value of the companies, according to Wall Street). As of Monday, PepsiCo was valued at $98.4 billion to Coke's $97.9b.

It's a fairly significant milestone in the CPG biz, and one that would have been hard to forecast even a few years ago. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted: "In early 2000 ... Coke's market cap stood at about $128 billion, far ahead of PepsiCo's roughly $44 billion."

Coke is still, by a good margin, the world's largest beverage company, and brand Coke is still tops in the Cola Wars. Pepsi has built itself through smart acquisitions, beginning with the creation of PepsiCo in 1965 through the merger of Pepsi and Frito-Lay, and continuing with the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and Quaker Oats (including Gatorade) in 2001.

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