Here's part 12 of FORTUNE's "Believe It or Not" investment gallery -- some of the most unconventional investments of all time:
Snapple was a fast-growing midsized business when investor Tom Lee bought it for $135 million in 1992, took it public, and sold it to Quaker Oats for $1.7 billion of the actual best stuff on Earth in 1994. (Quaker didn't fare nearly as well: It offloaded Snapple in 1997 for $300 million.)
I love stories where a guy buys something, sells it to a big company for a ba-zillion dollars, they run it into the ground and the guy (or someone else) buys it back and makes it great again. I think the jury is still out for that final piece in this case, but it seems likely that this would happen here.
Click here to read part 13 of this series.
Free Money Finance recommends Emigrant Direct.
Triac was the buyer of Snapple from Quaker, and they sold it a few years later (for big profit) to Cadbury Schwepps, the current owner.
Posted by: hedged | December 21, 2005 at 03:08 PM