Clif Bar billionaires reap 2,400% achieve by rebuffing early buyout

By Josephine Walker | Bloomberg

Gary Erickson was available a tantalizing sum from Quaker Oats in 2000 to offer Clif Bar & Co., his upstart electrical power-bar maker: $120 million.

He walked absent. As the company’s web page put it: “CLIF Is Not For Sale.”

20-two years later, that calculus has transformed. Erickson and his spouse, Package Crawford, this 7 days accepted a $2.9 billion buyout from snack giant Mondelez Worldwide Inc. Once completed, the acquisition will catapult the California-centered few into the class of self-produced billionaires.

By rebuffing the earlier provide and having Mondelez’s offer, Erickson and Crawford have banked a 2,400% obtain from retaining the vitality-bar firm household and worker owned because the transform of the century. They extended 20% of their shares to employees as a retirement reward in 2010, while retaining the remaining 80%.

The couple’s put together stake would be really worth about $2.3 billion before taxes, however federal and state funds gains taxes would cut down their windfall to $1.55 billion. The spouse and children also operates White Street Investments, a sustainable venture money agency, and an natural vineyard and farm in California’s Napa Valley.

Erickson and Crawford did not reply to requests for comment.

Mondelez, the Chicago-primarily based maker of Oreos and Cadbury sweets, mentioned that Clif will go on running from its headquarters in Emeryville, California, and will also maintain its facilities in Indianapolis and Twin Falls, Idaho.