Newell Rubbermaid is already an American consumer products giant, with the brands under their umbrella including Irwin, Sharpie, X-Acto, Elmer's, Prismacolor, Paper Mate, Vise-Grip, Rubbermaid and more. (Some of you may have even applied for the Senior Industrial Design job opening in their Ignite division, which makes thermal mugs and hydration bottles.) 

Jarden Corporation is another huge American company bristling with brands, like Oster, Sunbeam, Breville, K2 Sports, Marmot, First Alert, Coleman and more; all told Jarden has some 120 brands, "making it one of the largest diversified consumer products makers in the United States," Reuters reports, "selling everything from firewood to condoms."

Now the question is whether Newell Rubbermaid and Jarden are two great tastes that taste great together. The company brass apparently thinks so, as it was announced this morning that the former is buying the latter for US $13.22 billion.

Once combined, the company will simply be called Newell Brands and is expected to do $16 billion in revenue annually. Current Newell Rubbermaid CEO Michael B. Polk will keep the same title over the new venture, while Jarden founder Martin E. Franklin will join the Board of Directors.

The deal is expected to be completed by Q2 of next year, and following that the company expects to see "$500 million in incremental cost synergies expected over the next four years," which we take to mean "Yeah, some folks are gettin' fired." 

We hope those of you with design jobs in either entity are safe, or at least have enough time over the next four years to come up with a transition plan. When the time comes, the Core77 Job Boards are always there for you.