Pepsi racing with Coca-Cola to buy Sodastream? Story goes a bit flat
Is someone big thinking of buying Israeli-based soda-machine maker, SodaStream International?
Who (if anyone ) is bidding?
The shares soared after Israeli media said both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola were considering bids for the company. One figure mentioned was $2 billion.
But some of the fizz was taken out of that with a statement by Jim Wilkinson, a PepsiCo executive vice president, that the speculation was “completely untrue.”
Coca-Cola declined to comment on another report in the newspaper Globes that it may bid for the company.
SodaStream Chief Development and Communications Officer Yonah Lloyd told Bloomberg in an e-mail that the company doesn’t comment on rumour and speculation.
SodaStream is growing fast at a time when the $183 billion global market for carbonated drinks is slowing, said Bloomberg. The company aims to more than double sales to $1 billion by 2016.
The stock rose 2.7 percent to $71.24 at the close in New York, the highest since August 2011.
SodaStream’s soda-making system employs reusable bottles, CO2 cylinders, tap water and more than 160 flavour syrups. It is sold in 45 countries with 45 percent of sales from western Europe,and 39 per cent from with the Americas .