Kenvue

Spin-off and IPO

On November 12, 2021, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would spin off its consumer health division as a separate company, in an effort to streamline operations.^[3] The new company would assume well-known consumer brands such as Aveeno, Band-Aid, Neutrogena, and Tylenol, while Johnson & Johnson would focus on the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors.^[3] CEO Alex Gorsky said that the split was in response to "a significant evolution in these markets, particularly on the consumer side",^[3] and would enable faster expansion for both businesses.^[11]

Other pharmaceutical companies that made similar moves around this time included Merck & Co., which sold its consumer health business to Bayer in 2014,^{[note 1][3]} and Pfizer, which merged its consumer health division with that of GSK plc in 2019.^{[note 2][11]} The November 2021 announcement also occurred the same week that General Electric and Toshiba each announced that they would split into multiple entities.^[11]

The New York Times noted that Johnson & Johnson had long benefited from a "halo effect", namely a lingering positive connotation ascribed to the company name stemming from its popular household brands such as Johnson's Baby, but that its reputation had declined as a result of various controversies in recent years;^[11] Johnson & Johnson was the subject of litigation over its role in the opioid epidemic in the United States, as well as over allegations that its talc-based baby powder contained asbestos and caused ovarian cancer for some consumers.^[11] The spin-off was seen as an effort to move past these controversies and assuage shareholder apprehension.^[11]

The Times also pointed out that, while the consumer health business operates many well-known brands, it was not nearly as lucrative as the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, taking $15 billion in revenue in 2021 compared to the latter's combined $77 billion, and commented that the popularity of the consumer brands "does not do much to advance Johnson & Johnson's medical businesses, which are far more important to the company's finances".^[11]

On February 23, 2022, the consumer health business was registered as a corporation in Delaware,^[1] under the provisional name JNTL, Inc.^[16] On September 28, 2022, Johnson & Johnson said that the new consumer health company would be called Kenvue, a combination of "ken", a Scottish English word for 'knowledge', and "vue", a homophone of "view" intended to evoke the concept of 'sight'.^[17] At the time, Kenvue's total number of employees in was about 22,000.

In January 2023, Kenvue filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO).^[18] Kenvue issued about 1.89 billion shares, of which about 170 million were to be offered at the IPO.^[1] This meant that after the IPO, Johnson & Johnson would retain almost 91 percent of the shares.^[19][20]

The IPO took place on May 4, 2023.^[21] Shares of Kenvue were priced at $22,^[22][23][24] implying an initial equity valuation for Kenvue of about $41 billion, and traded at $26.90 at the end of the first trading day.^[25] Raising about $3.8 billion in capital for Kenvue, it was the largest IPO since the IPO of Rivian on November 10, 2021.^[26] The IPO was seen as a useful gauge of broader investor confidence.^[25] Observers cited rising interest rates and predictions of a looming recession to explain the slowdown in the U.S. IPO market since 2022, and said that Kenvue was an "idiosyncratic" IPO candidate as it was well-established, with an extensive track record of profitable years under its parent company.^[25][27]

On July 24, 2023, Johnson & Johnson launched an exchange offer to split-off Kenvue allowing Johnson & Johnson shareholders can exchange all, some or none of their shares of Johnson & Johnson common stock for shares of Kenvue.^[28][29]

In August 2023, Kenvue was added to the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index.^[30]

In March 2025, following the purchase of a stake in the company by activist investment firm Starboard, Jeffrey Smith, the CEO, took a seat on Kenvue’s board of directors.^[31] In July 2025, Thibaut Mongon, the first CEO of Kenvue, was terminated,^[32] and a review of the company’s strategy was begun.^[33]

Acquisition by Kimberly-Clark

In November 2025, Kimberly-Clark, a consumer products giant whose brands include Kleenex and Huggies, agreed to spend about $40 billion to acquire Kenvue.^[33] In terms of sales, the two companies had been roughly equal - in 2024, Kimberly-Clark had revenue of about $20.1 billion, while Kenvue's revenue was about $15.5 billion. The cash-and-stock deal will result in Kimberly-Clark shareholders owning about 54 percent of the new, combined company, with Kenvue shareholders owning about 46 percent.^[34]