Even now, mere mention of Quaker Oats’ acquisition of Snapple causes veteran deal makers to shudder. For good reason. In 1993, Quaker paid $1.7 billion for the Snapple brand, outbidding Coca-Cola, among other interested parties. In 1997, Quaker sold Snapple to Triarc Beverages for $300 million, a price most observers found generous. The debacle cost both the chairman and president of Quaker their jobs and hastened the end of Quaker’s independent existence (it’s now a unit of PepsiCo).
A version of this article appeared in the January 2002 issue of Harvard Business Review.