History of Founding Shaklee Coorperation
Shaklee headquarters in Pleasanton
Shaklee Corporation was a publicly traded company in the late 1970s and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The corporation began to diversify in November 1986 when it purchased the Bear Creek Corporation, a direct marketing company best known for its Harry and David Fruit-of-the-Month Club operation, from RJR Nabisco for $123 million. In February 1989 Shaklee sold its 78 percent interest in Shaklee Japan to the Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Company for $350 million, while maintaining its licensing agreement and continuing to collect royalty payments from the Japanese operations.[5] Then in March 1989, Shaklee Corporation received an unsolicited acquisition proposal from a group led by Irwin L. Jacobs, the Minneapolis financier known also by his nickname "Irv the Liquidator". Analysts placed the leveraged buyout value of Shaklee at $35 a share. The Jacobs group had been aggressively accumulating Shaklee shares, and disclosed it currently held a 14.98 percent stake in the San Francisco-based company. Shaklee immediately declared a special dividend of $20 a share, seen as a poison pill—a way to discourage takeover interest in Shaklee, though the company disputed that view. Shaklee's anti-takeover provisions came into play when an investor reached 15 percent.After a few tense weeks, during which time Jacobs increased his stake in Shaklee,Shaklee Corporation announced it was being acquired by Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical for $28 a share in cash, or about $395 million. Yamanouchi's partnership with Shaklee in Japan helped make the transaction possible, and cast Yamanouchi as a "white knight" in helping Shaklee fend off the hostile takeover bid by Jacobs. Jacobs announced he would not challenge the Yamanouchi bid and the deal with Yamanouchi was quickly finalized.Shaklee became a privately held company.
In April 2004, Yamanouchi sold Shaklee Corporation to American billionaire Roger Barnett, managing partner of Activated Holdings LLC, for $310 million. Bear Creek and the Harry and David line was sold to Wasserstein Perella & Co. for $260 million.Shaklee promotes itself as a company committed to being green.
Mr. Barnett is the Chairman and CEO of Shaklee Corporation. Founded in 1956, Shaklee is the number one natural nutrition and green cleaning products company in the U.S., with more than 1.2 million members and distributors in the U.S., Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Canada, Taiwan, and China. In 2000, Shaklee was the first company in the world to become Climate Neutral Certified to fully offset its carbon emissions.
Mr. Barnett began his career at the investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co. He then organized an investment group to acquire control of Arcade, Inc., which he transformed into the largest sampling company in the world, expanding from a solely U.S. operation into a global business. He was also the founder and Chairman and CEO of Beauty.com, which continues to be one of the leading internet retailers in the cosmetics industry.
Mr. Barnett received his undergraduate degree from Yale College (Summa Cum Laude), his law degree from Yale Law School (Senior Editor, Yale Law Journal), and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Barnett has been selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum (Davos). He has also been selected as a Young Leader Fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and is a member of the Young President's Organization. Additionally, Mr. Barnett serves as a member of the Harvard and Yale Schools of Public Health Leadership Councils, the Yale University President's Council on International Activities, the Board of Directors of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, the Advisory Board of 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai's The Green Belt Movement, the Board of Directors for Town School San Francisco, and the Board of Trustees of The Fine Arts Museums Foundation of San Francisco.
Mr. Barnett received his undergraduate degree from Yale College (Summa Cum Laude), his law degree from Yale Law School (Senior Editor, Yale Law Journal), and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Barnett has been selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum (Davos). He has also been selected as a Young Leader Fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and is a member of the Young President's Organization. Additionally, Mr. Barnett serves as a member of the Harvard and Yale Schools of Public Health Leadership Councils, the Yale University President's Council on International Activities, the Board of Directors of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, the Advisory Board of 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai's The Green Belt Movement, the Board of Directors for Town School San Francisco, and the Board of Trustees of The Fine Arts Museums Foundation of San Francisco.
