It’s the golden age of consumer brand mergers and acquisitions. Every industry person I follow is talking about Poppi’s $1.95 billion purchase by PepsiCo, Siete’s $1.2 billion sale also to PepsiCo, and Hershey’s $750 million deal for LesserEvil. Then there’s the never-ending stream of multimillion-dollar valuations, like Molly Baz’s raising $4.5 million for Ayoh! ahead of its national launch in Whole Foods.

But underneath the celebratory posts and funding announcements, there’s a bigger pattern emerging, and it’s reshaping what it means to build a brand in 2025. A growing number of today’s consumer brands—especially in the food, beverage, personal care, and wellness sectors— are being built to be bought.