RJR NABISCO, INC.

conglomerate corporation formed by the merger in 1985 of R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc. (a diversified company specializing in tobacco and food products), and Nabisco Brands, an international manufacturer of snack foods. Headquarters are in New York City. The origins of RJR Nabisco date to the establishment in 1875 of Richard Joshua Reynolds' first tobacco-plug factory. The Reynolds Tobacco Company (q.v.) grew steadily throughout the first half of the 20th century and began to diversify in the 1960s. It acquired several food companies, and in 1970 its name was changed to R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc. Nabisco originated in 1898 from the merger of two large American cracker-manufacturing firms, the New York Biscuit Company and the American Biscuit Company, to form the National Biscuit Company. The company grew and steadily diversified into other food products until by the 1980s it was one of the largest manufacturers of packaged foods in the world. Its products included cookies, crackers, packaged nuts, other snack foods, hot cereals, margarine, and condiments. In 1985 R.J. Reynolds Industries acquired Nabisco Brands, Inc., and the company's present name was adopted in 1986. In 1989 the firm of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company purchased RJR Nabisco in the largest leveraged buyout in history.