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It’s tradition here on New Year’s Eve to take a look back at the stories that most caught your eyes. This year’s Top 10 Most Read BevNET Stories included several M&A deals for emerging brands, a controversial manufacturing closure, new energy drink innovations and a dirty new play from a major strategic. Here’s a select sampling of the reader’s choice. 10. Mondelez Tells Ghost ‘Hands Off Our Kids’ In April, two Mondelez subsidiaries in Illinois sued Ghost Lifestyle for trademark infringement, arguing that the brand’s 2018 licensing agreement to produce co-branded Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish and Oreo products among others was nullified by its sale to Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP). The case came to a peaceful conclusion a month later. 7. Culture Pop Lands $15M to ‘Close the Gap’ in Modern Soda While Poppi may have understandably dominated the discussions around the ‘Modern Soda’ set this year, it was emerging probiotic soda maker Culture Pop that grabbed our readers this year when it closed a $15 million funding round. 6. Barstool Sports Owner Dave Portnoy Backs PHX Energy Drink Launch Startup energy drink brand PHX (pronounced Phoenix) rose to prominence fast thanks to the involvement of Barstool Sports owner and general media celebrity Dave Portnoy. 3. Spindrift Agrees Sale to PE Firm Gryphon Investors; Dave Burwick Named CEO There were plenty of big acquisitions this year, Spindrift’s sale to Gryphon Investors in January – in a deal reported to be around $650 million – was among the most exciting. Curious about the full list? Read the story on BevNET.
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