PepsiCo Acquisition Nets Bonus for SodaStream Employees

The $3.2 billion PepsiCo Inc.-SodaStream International Ltd. deal announced last week will net the employees of the Israeli at-home water carbonation products company a one-time bonus.

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Last Monday, the two companies announced PepsiCo will pay $144 per share for the Israeli company in a deal that will see SodaStream become a wholly owned subsidiary. SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum stands to make as much as $61 million off the acquisition when completed, based on his options.

In a letter sent to the employees, Birnbaum wrote: "I always say that everything begins and ends with people, and here at SodaStream we proved the saying true. We have the best people in the world."

As part of the acquisition, PepsiCo will award $4,900 (NIS 18,000) to each employee that has worked at SodaStream for at least a year. Employees working at the company for a lesser duration will be compensated according to the number of months under their belt. The grant, worth around 2.5 times the monthly salary of a production line employee in Israel, will be paid when the deal goes through.

At the end of 2017, SodaStream employed almost 2,600 people, 1,875 of them in Israel and the rest mostly in Germany, Netherlands, and the U.S.