PepsiCo to buy SodaStream

PepsiCo announced Monday that it plans to buy SodaStream, the popular maker of home carbonation machines, for $3.2 billion, as the beverage giant extends its bet on products that are not sugary sodas.

The deal is a late effort by Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s departing chief executive, to firmly steer the beverage company toward healthier snack and drink offerings. Under Nooyi, it has shifted more and more attention to products like premium bottled water, baked food and veggie chips.

That strategy has drawn intense criticism at times, including from activist shareholders. But Nooyi has persisted, noting that sales at the company have grown 81 percent under her tenure.

The transaction, PepsiCo’s biggest in years, also gives the company another potential source of revenue: refills of flavored syrups and carbon-dioxide gas, in what is often known as the razor-and-blades model. Yet in doing so, the company will try to make work what its big rival, Coca-Cola, could not do four years ago.

Under the terms of the deal, PepsiCo will pay $144 a share, nearly 11 percent higher than SodaStream’s closing stock price Friday. It is expected to close in January, pending approval by SodaStream’s shareholders.

The two companies have existing business ties, with PepsiCo having tested homemade versions of Pepsi and Sierra Mist using SodaStream machines in 2014.