Consumer goods and personal care giant Kimberley-Clark is buying Tylenol-maker Kenvue in a $40 billion deal involving stock and cash, in what can be called a mammoth merger of two consumer health goods companies.
The landmark deal for the consumer sector comes as Kenvue’s flagship drug, Tylenol, faces White House scrutiny and choppy demand.
With the merger, Kimberley-Clark would surpass Unilever to become the second-largest company that sells health and wellness products, after Procter & Gamble Co.
What’s inside the $40 billion Kenvue-Kimberley Clark deal?
Shareholders of Kenvue get $3.50 per share in cash and 0.14625 Kimberly-Clark shares per Kenvue share, the companies said in a statement on Monday. That implies an equity value of $40.32 billion, according to calculations made by Reuters.
Together in cash and stocks, the deal value aggregates to $21.01 per share. This implies a a hefty 46.2% premium to the Kenvue stock’s last closing price.
The deal has an enterprise value of about $48.7 billion, the companies said.
Current shareholders of Kimberley-Clark would own about 54% of the combined companies, while Kenvue shareholders getting the remaining 46%.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. After the merger, Mike Hsu will stay on as CEO, as per the terms of the deal.
“Kimberly-Clark has undertaken a significant transformation to pivot our portfolio to higher-growth, higher-margin businesses,” Hsu said in a statement, adding that Kenvue’s collection of brands fits that bill.
Shares of Kimberly-Clark, which owns the Kleenex and Huggies brands, fell 16% in premarket trading. Meanwhile, shares of Kenvue soared 19%.
Kimberly-Clark expects about $2.1 billion in annual cost savings from the acquisition.
Timing of the Kenvue-Kimberley Clark deal
While media reports have circulated since June about a possible aquisition, the timing of the Kenvue-Kimberley Clark deal comes earlier than expected.
Kenvue has been struggling with diminishing demand, and facing scrutiny from the White House after allegations that Tylenol causes autism and ADHD in children if their mothers consume the drug while pregnant.
Last week, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr acknowledged that there was no evidence proving Tylenol causes autism, but repeated his view that signs of a link between the two were “very suggestive”.
However, that seemed to have done little good to the company, which has been facing lawsuits over claims that its baby powder products caused cancer, dampening investor sentiment.
Kenvue has struggled after its split from Johnson & Johnson two years ago, with the firm having a rather short run as an independent company.
