Bang Energy is up for auction, according to reports.
The question remains who will get the brand that rose to become the number three energy drink in just over 5 years. It’s rise to prominence was not without lawsuits along the way, including for its former CEO and founder Jack Owoc. The lawsuits covered everything from the music it used to false advertising to just what is in the product. The weight of those lawsuits and judgments paving the path to this moment.
“As many of you have heard, Bang Energy/VPX Sports recently filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection…” – Bang Energy website, October 2022
At the time of filing the company has over a thousand employees and After filing for bankruptcy last October following several legal defeats, the future of Bang Energy has been speculated about. At the time of the bankruptcy announcement their website said they were continuing to sell and distribute product while they, “use this time to recover from unexpected challenges.”
However, at the start of March it was reported that, “Bang Energy parent company set for bankruptcy court auction.”
Within two weeks of that news there were several major changes: there was the announcement that Bang/VPX Founder and CEO Jack Owoc was out and new leadership put in place.
And, according to reports,Vital Pharmaceuticals had hired C Street Advisory Group to handle all its communications.
All of this happened after a 2022 that brought major legal defeats to the company that it’s bombastic head, Jack Owoc, couldn’t bluster his was out of with social media posts and lawyers. After forcing employees to ignore Covid protocols in the early days of the pandemic or lose days off, publicly chastising employees, shooting money guns into the air at political events, having a reality YouTube show, and wearing shiny shirts and gold chains, the CEO who built these brands was out.
“The filing followed a string of lawsuits, including a case against former exclusive distributor PepsiCo. Most notably, competitor Monster Energy won $293 million in damages after alleging Bang falsely advertised the ingredients and health benefits of its products.” – PR Week
While it seems the era of this loud CEO is over at the companies, what remains of this major brand in the energy drink category that is literally up for auction?
So what will become of the brand? PepsiCo announced in March 2020 it was buying Rockstar for $3.85 billion. Will it be like Rockstar, gobbled up by a behemoth brand?
Possibly. According to reports, Monster Energy is looking to pick up their competing brand. Yes, the brand that has had litigation with VPX and Bang for over a decade may soon acquire its competition.
“Analyst Mark Astrachan noted that the original timeline calling for a stalking horse bidder to be named in the late part of March and a potential auction in late April is likely to have been pushed out. However, the firm sees Monster Beverage as in the best position to acquire Bang given it is the largest creditor in bankruptcy and co-rights holder to a 5% perpetual royalty/license for use of the Bang beverage trademark.”
“Relatedly, Monster is challenging Bang’s ability to transfer the Bang trademark license to an acquirer, which, if successful, would give Monster near total control over Bang’s future. While we have no knowledge of discussions, we think Monster acquiring Bang would be modestly accretive to EPS and, strategically, additive to its retail shelf-space and provide some U.S. manufacturing optionality.”
Keurig Dr. Pepper had been reported last August to be in talks with the brand about a takeover but that fell apart after talks became public. Bloomberg published an article saying talks were happening and the next day reported they were over and done.
“KDP is not currently pursuing an acquisition of Bang Energy,” a representative for Keurig Dr Pepper said in an emailed statement Friday.
“As we have shared numerous times, our top capital allocation priority is growing our business through M&A and brand/distribution partnerships and, as such, we continue to be quite active in evaluating opportunities that arise,” the representative said.
Which brings us to the auction, reported to be happening in these days.
With such a major player in the energy beverage market up for grabs all eyes are on who will get this popular leading brand. We are staying tuned.
