A pile of Clif Bars and Clif Mojo Energy Bars manufactured by Clif Bar & Company sits isolated on a white background.
JacobVanHouten/Getty ImagesClif Bar, the Emeryville-based company known for the chewy energy bars collecting at the bottom of your hiking backpack, will be bought by multinational snack corporation Mondelez for $2.9 billion.
Mondelez announced its plans to acquire Clif Bar on Monday, stating that the purchase price could go up depending on its financial performance during 2025 and 2026. The corporation is based in Chicago and owns famous snack products like Oreo, Cadbury, Ritz, Sour Patch Kids and Toblerone.
“Mondelez International is the right partner at the right time to support Clif in our next chapter of growth,” said Sally Grimes, CEO of Clif Bar & Company, in a statement.
The deal comes 22 years after Clif Bar’s owner and co-founder Gary Erickson turned down an offer from Quaker Oats to buy the company for $120 million. While that deal would’ve made him and his co-founder Lisa Thomas each $60 million richer before taxes, he instead decided to buy Thomas’s share and hold onto ownership alongside his wife Kit Crawford. It was a smart move — Mondelez’s offer will send Erickson and Crawford off with $1.53 billion, according to Forbes. The couple owns 80% of the company and the remaining 20% is owned by its employees.
Clif Bar will still run out of its headquarters in Emeryville and maintain production facilities in Indianapolis and Twin Falls, Idaho. Its deal with Mondelez is expected to close later this year.