Nantucket

Harvard Business School

9-898-171

Rev. December 11, 2000

Nantucket Nectars

Well, we knew we were in an interesting position. We had five companies express interest in acquiring a portion of the company. Sometimes you have to laugh about how things occur. Tropicana (Seagram) and Ocean Spray became interested in us after reading an article in Brandweek magazine that erroneously reported that Triarc was in negotiations to buy us. (See Exhibit 1 for a copy of this article.) At the time, we hadn’t even met with Triarc, although we knew their senior people from industry conferences. We have no idea how this rumor began. Within weeks Triarc and Pepsi contacted us. We told no one about these on-going negotiations and held all the meetings away from our offices so that no Nectars employee would become concerned. It was quite a frenetic time. The most memorable day was just a few days ago actually. Firsty and I were in an extended meeting with Ocean Spray, making us late for our second round meeting with Pepsi. Ultimately, Tom and I split up: Firsty stayed with Ocean Spray and I met with Pepsi. Ocean Spray never knew about the Pepsi meeting. Tom and I have learned under fire throughout our Nectars experience, but this experience was a new one for us. —Tom Scott, co-founder of Nantucket Nectars

Research Associate Jon M. Biotti prepared this case under the supervision of Professors Joseph B. Lassiter III and William A. Sahlman as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical,...