Kimberly-Clark → Kenvue
Kimberly-Clark's cash-and-stock purchase of Kenvue, the Tylenol, Listerine and Neutrogena business Johnson & Johnson spun off in 2023, values it at an enterprise value of $48.7bn; approved by both sets of shareholders, it was expected as of late September 2026 to close in the fourth quarter.
A cash-and-stock purchase of the Tylenol and Neutrogena owner at $21.01 a share, approved by both shareholder bases in January 2026.
- Value
- $48.7B
- Announced
- November 2025
- Completed
- Pending
- Sector
- Consumer
- Deal type
- acquisition
- Acquirer
- Kimberly-Clark (United States)
- Target
- Kenvue (United States)
Why it mattered
Kenvue's independence was short and difficult. Johnson & Johnson floated it in May 2023 at $22 a share, raising $3.8bn, and completed the separation through an exchange offer that summer. By 2025 the activist Starboard had a stake and a board seat, the first chief executive, Thibaut Mongon, was dismissed in July and a strategic review began. The same year President Trump made statements linking Tylenol taken in pregnancy to autism — an unproven connection — and in October the Texas attorney-general sued Kenvue over it.
Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Kleenex and Huggies, agreed on 3 November 2025 to pay $3.50 in cash plus 0.14625 of its own shares for each Kenvue share: $21.01 at the time, below the IPO price. The price was 14.3 times Kenvue's trailing adjusted EBITDA, or 8.8 times after $2.1bn of expected annual synergies — about $1.9bn of cost savings and $500m of profit from extra sales, less $300m of reinvestment. Kimberly-Clark's shareholders would own about 54% of a group with roughly $32bn of revenue and $7bn of adjusted EBITDA. The cash part, $6.8bn, was to come from the balance sheet, new debt and the sale of 51% of Kimberly-Clark's International Family Care and Professional business.
What it left behind
Both companies' shareholders approved the deal on 29 January 2026 — about 99% of the Kenvue votes cast, or 77% of its shares outstanding. The US Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period expired on 4 February, leaving foreign approvals. Meanwhile Kimberly-Clark launched Arbex, its joint venture with Suzano, and booked $109m of Kenvue-related charges in the second quarter. On 28 September 2026 it opened an exchange offer for up to $7bn of Kenvue's bonds, conditional on the merger, which it expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. As of 29 September 2026 the deal had not closed. A spin-off priced for independence becomes a target within three years if its standalone plan stalls, and the buyer inherits its unresolved litigation along with the brands.