Basses Sell Stake in Famous Amos : Investor Group Gets Control, Will Expand Cookie Firm
An investor group that includes a New York apparel executive and former U.S. Sen. John Tunney on Monday bought a controlling interest in Famous Amos Cookie Co. from the wealthy Bass family of Fort Worth.
The group said it would pump new capital into the business for a major expansion including ice cream, candy bars and soft drinks based on the Los Angeles-based company’s trademark chocolate chip cookies, plus more franchise stores, an East Coast cookie factory, a quadrupled advertising budget and increased distribution.
No price was disclosed, but company President Donald Sawyer said the Basses’ 51% stake in the privately held business was worth less than $5 million. Details of the deal were not disclosed, but the Basses accepted some warrants convertible to Famous Amos common stock at a later date, Sawyer said.
In a telephone interview, Tunney said the investor group actually bought “significantly more than 50%” of the company’s stock as part of the deal, but he did not elaborate. It was unclear from whom the group bought the other shares or who now owns the remaining minority stake.
The investor group is headed by Sidney Kimmel, chairman of Jones Apparel Group and a movie financier whose credits include “Blame It on Rio.”
Others in Group
Others in the group besides Tunney, now a Los Angeles investment banker who assembled the deal, are Neill Brownstein, a Palo Alto venture capitalist; Robert Montgomery, a New York entertainment lawyer, and Jack Schwartzman and Alan Salke, two Los Angeles lawyers active in the entertainment business.
“We think that the company can register a significant increase in sales nationwide as a result of a better business plan,” Tunney said. “The company has lost significant market share to Mrs. Field’s and David’s cookies.” The publicity-shy Bass brothers could not be reached for comment Monday.
They bought control of the company from founder Wally Amos for an undisclosed price on Feb. 23, Sawyer said. Amos, who lives in Hawaii but remains active in the business, founded the company in 1975. According to Sawyer, annual sales exceed $10 million. Profits are not disclosed.
The Calabasas headquarters of Famous Amos recently burned, and the company is now operating out of half a dozen units in a Van Nuys apartment complex. It will move to a new headquarters in Van Nuys next month, Sawyer said, in part to be near its baking operations in that community.
Sawyer said the Basses decided to sell because they prefer not to be involved in operating a business and because the sum of money involved just wasn’t worth their time. Late last year, Newsweek estimated that the Bass interests are worth nearly $4 billion.
