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.[2] 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.[2] CEO Alex Gorsky said that the split was in response to "a significant evolution in these markets, particularly on the consumer side",[2] 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,[2] and Pfizer, which merged its consumer health division with that of GSK plc in 2019.[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 $15billion in revenue in 2021 compared to the latter's combined $77billion, 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,[16] under the provisional name JNTL, Inc.[17] 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'.[18] At the time, Kenvue's total number of employees was about 22,000.

In January 2023, Kenvue filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO).[19] Kenvue issued about 1.89billion shares, of which about 170million were to be offered at the IPO.[16] This meant that after the IPO, Johnson & Johnson would retain almost 91 percent of the shares.[20][21]

The IPO took place on May 4, 2023.[22] Shares of Kenvue were priced at $22,[23][24][25] implying an initial equity valuation for Kenvue of about $41billion, and traded at $26.90 at the end of the first trading day.[26] Raising about $3.8billion in capital for Kenvue, it was the largest IPO since the IPO of Rivian on November 10, 2021.[27] The IPO was seen as a useful gauge of broader investor confidence.[26] 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.[26][28]

On July 24, 2023, Johnson & Johnson launched an exchange offer to split off Kenvue, allowing Johnson & Johnson shareholders to exchange all, some, or none of their shares of Johnson & Johnson common stock for shares of Kenvue.[29][30]

In August 2023, Kenvue was added to the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index.[31]

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.[32] In July 2025, Thibaut Mongon, the first CEO of Kenvue, was terminated,[33] and a review of the company’s strategy was begun.[34]

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.[34] 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.[35]