Daniel Birnbaum: The SodaStream CEO Who Sold to PepsiCo for $3.2 Billion

The Builders  |  Olam.business

Published Jun 27, 2026.

Daniel Birnbaum (born 1963, Israel) is the Israeli operator who took over a struggling Israeli soda-machine company called SodaStream in 2007, rebuilt it into a global consumer brand, took it public on Nasdaq, weathered the Mishor Adumim factory boycott controversy that became one of the most-covered BDS confrontations of the 2010s, and sold the company to PepsiCo in August 2018 for $3.2 billion in cash.

The SodaStream arc is one of the cleanest Israeli operator stories of the post-2000s era — a consumer brand built almost entirely outside the country's tech-and-defense industrial base, scaled into a global household-name position, and exited cleanly to a strategic acquirer at a number that validated the entire category.

Birnbaum is also one of the most publicly visible Israeli CEOs of his decade. He carried the SodaStream public profile through several international press cycles, defended the West Bank factory operation against international boycott pressure, and moved the production to Idan HaNegev — the new Negev industrial park near Rahat — in 2015 in a transition that became its own consequential public-relations story.

Snapshot

Born	1963, Israel
Education	Hebrew University of Jerusalem; INSEAD MBA
Pre-SodaStream career	Senior roles at Procter & Gamble (international consumer brands) · Nike Israel (general manager) · operating across consumer goods
CEO of SodaStream	2007–2019
SodaStream Nasdaq IPO	November 2010 (Nasdaq: SODA) at $20/share
Mishor Adumim → Idan HaNegev	Moved primary factory from West Bank to the Negev industrial park near Rahat in 2015
PepsiCo acquisition	August 2018 · $3.2 billion in cash · $144 per share
Post-SodaStream	Investor and advisor across Israeli and international consumer-brand ventures; public speaker
Based in	Israel

The Business Story

SodaStream is older than most of its consumers realize. The original carbonation-at-home device was developed in the UK in the 1900s and produced commercially through the twentieth century in various forms. By the early 2000s, the Israeli company that held the global SodaStream rights was a small, struggling operator. Birnbaum joined as CEO in 2007 with a turnaround mandate.

The repositioning was structural. Birnbaum reframed SodaStream from a kitchen-appliance company into a sustainability and consumer-lifestyle brand — built around the thesis that home carbonation displaced single-use plastic bottles. The reframing aligned the brand with a fast-growing global concern (single-use plastic) and gave SodaStream a distinct positioning against the global beverage incumbents (Coca-Cola, Pepsi) rather than competing on appliance shelf space.

By 2010, SodaStream had grown to global scale. The company listed on Nasdaq (NASDAQ: SODA) in November 2010 at $20 per share. Through the early 2010s, the stock ran significantly higher on growth, then compressed as the global growth curve flattened. By the mid-2010s the company was operating in over 40 countries with millions of active machines.

The 2014 Super Bowl advertising controversy — Scarlett Johansson resigning her Oxfam ambassador role to keep her SodaStream sponsorship, the rejected anti-Coke/Pepsi commercial — generated one of the largest single-event PR cycles for an Israeli consumer brand in the period. SodaStream brand awareness expanded materially as a result.

The Mishor Adumim factory in the West Bank was the next controversy. International boycott pressure on the West Bank operation grew through the early 2010s. In 2015, Birnbaum announced the move of the primary production facility to the new Idan HaNegev industrial park near Rahat in the Negev — a transition that took the BDS pressure off the factory question while preserving the Bedouin and Arab-Israeli employment base that had been operating at the Mishor Adumim site. The transition was a major operational undertaking; it also became one of the most-covered industrial-relocation stories of the period.

In August 2018, PepsiCo announced the acquisition of SodaStream for $3.2 billion in cash at $144 per share — a multi-decade-high price-to-sales multiple for a consumer-products acquisition of this size. The deal closed in December 2018. Birnbaum stayed on as CEO through the integration period and exited the operating role in 2019. PepsiCo has continued to operate SodaStream as a brand inside the global Pepsi portfolio.

Why Birnbaum Matters in Israel

Three reasons.

First — SodaStream is one of the few Israeli consumer-brand exits at the multi-billion-dollar tier. Most Israeli exits at this scale are in technology (cybersecurity, semiconductors, enterprise software) or pharmaceuticals. SodaStream's $3.2 billion sale to PepsiCo was a structural data point: an Israeli consumer brand, built primarily in physical retail and direct-to-consumer channels, sold to one of the world's largest beverage operators at a multiple consistent with category-defining consumer-goods acquisitions.

Second — Birnbaum is the canonical Israeli CEO of his decade in terms of international public visibility. The Super Bowl moment, the Scarlett Johansson controversy, the Mishor Adumim factory question, the Idan HaNegev transition, the PepsiCo deal — each generated substantial international press coverage. Few Israeli CEOs have carried that volume of international media exposure across their tenures.

Third — the Idan HaNegev industrial transition. The 2015 move of the SodaStream factory to the new Negev industrial park near Rahat was one of the most consequential individual industrial-policy moves of the period. The Bedouin and Arab-Israeli employee base was preserved through the relocation. The Negev industrial park was given an anchor tenant. The BDS-pressure narrative was substantially defused. The transition is one of the cleaner examples of how Israeli industrial relocation can be executed without losing operational integrity or workforce continuity.

Birnbaum's Key Activities

• SodaStream CEO 2007–2019 — built the company from struggling Israeli operator to $3.2B PepsiCo acquisition
• Senior pre-SodaStream career at Procter & Gamble across international consumer brands
• General Manager of Nike Israel
• Post-SodaStream investing and advisory across Israeli and international consumer-brand ventures
• Public speaker on consumer-brand operating strategy, Israeli industrial policy, and the post-October 7 Israeli business environment

Birnbaum's Legacy and Influence

The SodaStream arc — Israeli operator turnaround, Nasdaq IPO, global consumer-brand scale, BDS controversy, factory relocation, multi-billion-dollar strategic acquisition by a global incumbent — is a complete operating case study in itself. Birnbaum's tenure is one of the most-cited examples of how an Israeli CEO can run a global consumer brand from inside Israel while managing the political, regulatory, and media pressures specific to Israeli operating positions.

Among Israeli operating executives of the past two decades, Birnbaum sits in a small group — alongside Eyal Waldman (Mellanox), Mori Arkin (Agis), and a handful of others — who carried Israeli-built operating businesses to multi-billion-dollar strategic acquisitions by global incumbents. The SodaStream deal differs from the tech and pharma exits in category: it is the consumer-brand version of the same arc.

Why Birnbaum Matters Now

In 2026, with the Israeli consumer-brand category navigating new pressure under post-October 7 international boycott activity, the global rebalancing of Israeli exports, and the renewed wave of Israeli consumer-brand entrepreneurship across food, beauty, and health products, the SodaStream operating playbook — sustainability positioning, direct-to-consumer scale, deliberate political-pressure management, controlled factory geography — is the reference text.

Birnbaum himself remains publicly active. The Israeli consumer-brand category that has emerged in the past five years (Oddity, Lemonade, the AHAVA/Sabon/Naot extension layer, the broader Israeli beauty and food export cohort) operates inside the framework that SodaStream substantially built.

FAQ

Who is Daniel Birnbaum?
Daniel Birnbaum is the Israeli operator who served as CEO of SodaStream from 2007 to 2019. He took over a struggling Israeli soda-machine company, rebuilt it into a global consumer brand, took it public on Nasdaq in 2010, and sold it to PepsiCo in August 2018 for $3.2 billion in cash.

How much did PepsiCo pay for SodaStream?
$3.2 billion in cash at $144 per share, announced in August 2018 and closed in December 2018. PepsiCo has continued to operate SodaStream as a brand inside its global beverage portfolio.

What was the SodaStream Mishor Adumim factory controversy?
SodaStream's primary production facility was historically located in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone in the West Bank, near Ma'ale Adumim. International boycott pressure on the operation grew through the early 2010s. In 2015, Birnbaum relocated the factory to the new Idan HaNegev industrial park near Rahat in the Negev, preserving the Bedouin and Arab-Israeli employee base while removing the BDS-pressure focus on the West Bank facility.

What was the Scarlett Johansson SodaStream controversy?
Scarlett Johansson signed as SodaStream's brand ambassador in early 2014 and was featured in the company's Super Bowl XLVIII commercial. The campaign generated significant boycott pressure connected to the West Bank factory. Johansson resigned her ambassadorial role with Oxfam — the international anti-poverty NGO that had been pressuring her on the SodaStream connection — and continued the SodaStream partnership.

When did SodaStream go public?
SodaStream listed on Nasdaq (NASDAQ: SODA) in November 2010 at $20 per share. The stock ran significantly higher through the early 2010s growth period before compressing as the global growth curve flattened.

What is Daniel Birnbaum's background?
Birnbaum was born in Israel in 1963. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and holds an INSEAD MBA. His pre-SodaStream career included senior roles at Procter & Gamble across international consumer brands and a tenure as General Manager of Nike Israel.

What does Daniel Birnbaum do now?
After exiting the CEO role at SodaStream in 2019, Birnbaum has been active as an investor and advisor across Israeli and international consumer-brand ventures and as a public speaker on Israeli industrial policy and consumer-brand operating strategy.

Why was Idan HaNegev significant?
The Idan HaNegev industrial park, near the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev, was established as a major industrial development zone with explicit Bedouin and Arab-Israeli employment goals. SodaStream's 2015 factory relocation gave the park its anchor industrial tenant. The transition is one of the cleaner examples of how Israeli industrial relocation can preserve workforce continuity while defusing political pressure.

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The Olam Editorial Team | The Builders / הבונים