The Procter & Gamble Company
Acquisitions
3
Major Deals Covered
$58.2B
Disclosed Deal Value
Procter & Gamble's largest disclosed acquisition here is Gillette for $57B in 2005. This page covers 3 major deals from 1985 to 2005, each with its price where disclosed and the reason behind it.
| Company | Year | Price | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gillette | 2005 | $57.0B | Added a leading grooming franchise and brands such as Gillette, Venus, Braun, and Oral-B. |
| Richardson-Vicks | 1985 | $1.2B | Added Vicks, NyQuil, Olay, and Pantene-related health and beauty capabilities. |
| Gillette | 2005 | Undisclosed | Strategic expansion. |
2005
$57.0B
Added a leading grooming franchise and brands such as Gillette, Venus, Braun, and Oral-B.
Made P&G broader in grooming and oral care.
Gillette remains central to P&G's grooming segment. This ensures long-term operational success and structural market dominance across the broader retail landscape. This ensures survival. This ensures long-term operational success and structural market dominance across the broader retail landscape. This ensures survival.
2005
Strategic expansion.
1985
$1.2B
Added Vicks, NyQuil, Olay, and Pantene-related health and beauty capabilities.
Expanded P&G into personal care and health.
Several brands became long-term P&G franchises. This ensures long-term operational success and structural market dominance across the broader retail landscape. This ensures survival. This ensures long-term operational success and structural market dominance across the broader retail landscape. This ensures survival.
P&G's integrated growth strategy has five parts: a portfolio focused on about ten daily-use categories, superiority across product, packaging, communication, retail execution and value, productivity savings to fund reinvestment, 'constructive disruption' of its own practices, and an agile, accountable organization. In June 2025 the company announced a two-year restructuring that includes exiting some brands and product forms in certain markets and cutting up to 7,000 non-manufacturing roles, about 15% of that workforce. Under Jejurikar the emphasis has shifted toward consumer-first innovation, digital media and faster decision-making.
P&G makes money by designing, manufacturing and marketing branded household and personal-care products that consumers buy every week, then selling them through retailers, club stores, pharmacies, distributors and e-commerce platforms. Revenue comes from five reportable segments: Fabric & Home Care (Tide, Ariel, Dawn, Downy, Febreze), the largest; Baby, Feminine & Family Care (Pampers, Always, Bounty, Charmin); Beauty (Olay, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, SK-II); Health Care (Crest, Oral-B, Vicks); and Grooming (Gillette, Venus, Braun). Walmart is its largest customer. Profit depends on premium pricing backed by product performance, purchasing and manufacturing scale, and heavy, data-driven advertising.
In 2005, P&G completed the largest acquisition in consumer goods history by purchasing The Gillette Company for $57 billion. The transaction added Gillette, Venus, Braun, Oral-B, and Duracell to P&G, creating the world's personal care and grooming giant.
In 1985, P&G acquired Richardson-Vicks for $1.2 billion, bringing foundational global over-the-counter healthcare and beauty brands into P&G, including Vicks respiratory health (VapoRub, NyQuil, DayQuil) and Olay skincare.
In 1997, P&G acquired Tambrands for $2.0 billion, acquiring Tampax tampons and integrating it alongside Always to establish P&G as the global leader in feminine hygiene care.
In December 2018, P&G acquired the global Consumer Health division of Germany's Merck KGaA for €3.4 billion ($4.2B USD) in cash, acquiring physician-recommended vitamins, minerals, and supplements (including Bion3, Femibion, and Seven Seas) across 44 countries.
In October 2016, P&G divested 43 non-core beauty, salon professional, and fragrance brands (including CoverGirl, Max Factor, Clairol, Wella, and Hugo Boss fragrances) to Coty Inc. in a $12.5 billion Reverse Morris Trust transaction to focus exclusively on core premium brands.
In 2017, P&G acquired clean personal care brand Native (natural deodorants, body wash, and hair care) for $100 million, successfully scaling it through P&G's retail distribution into a multi-hundred-million-dollar mainstream leader.
In 1989, P&G acquired Noxell Corporation for $1.3 billion in stock, marking P&G's major historic entry into mainstream cosmetics and mass skin cleansers.
P&G avoids speculative mega-mergers, focusing instead on bolt-on acquisitions of high-growth, superior performance brands (such as Native, Farmacy Beauty, Tula Skincare, and Voost effervescent vitamins) that can be scaled globally through P&G's retail supply chain.
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