Bacardi has just acquired tequila maker Patron Spirits International AG for $5.1 billion (£3.6 billion) dollars.
According to Bloomberg, agave-based spirits, such as tequila and mezcal are enjoying a huge boom in sales, compared to other spirits like vodka or rum, which I think probably tells you a lot about the current state of the world, really.
Between 2002 and 2016 sales of super-premium tequila increased eight-fold, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. Whereas vodka sales dropped by 2.4 percent and rum by 0.2 percent over the same period.
As such, Bacardi, which already owned a 30 percent stake in Patron has now bought the whole company for the eye-watering sum.
As well as its namesake rum, Bacardi also own Bombay Sapphire, Grey Goose and Dewar's, so now they've got tequila into the mix and it sounds like they'll be throwing one hell of a staff Christmas party this year.
If you've never tried Patron, I'd highly recommend it if you want to simultaneously make a fool of yourself and not remember it in the morning.
The merger will mean that Bacardi will be able to throw its global distribution links behind Patron getting it sold worldwide, as the brand is still best known, and sells the most, in the US. Incoming chief executive officer Mahesh Madhavan told Bloomberg: "Adding Patron to the Bacardi portfolio creates a tremendous opportunity for the brand outside of the United States as Bacardi's international distribution network will help grow Patron around the world, increasing scale in the U.S. and globally."
Patron has been around since 1989, when founders John Paul DeJoria and Martin Crowley came up with the idea of marketing tequila to a more sophisticated and upmarket customer, broadening its customer-base from young people who wanted to get wasted to slightly older, more successful people who wanted to get wasted.
Featured Image Credit: Patron