October 2 in business history: a strip in seven papers, a $10,000 offer refused, and a $24 share price

Three 2 Octobers, and on each one somebody made something that outgrew them. In 1950 a comic strip started in seven newspapers. In 1965 a drink went out to a college football sideline. In 2024 an engine repair business listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

All three are still earning, and in each case the money went to whoever held the rights.

On 2 October 1950 the comic strip Peanuts appeared for the first time, in seven newspapers, four panels a day 1. Charles M. Schulz drew all 17,897 strips himself, lettering included, for nearly fifty years 2.

The strip belonged to the syndicate that distributed it, United Feature Syndicate 2. By the time Schulz died in 2000 it ran in more than 2,600 newspapers and reached about 355 million readers, and the strip and its merchandise had earned him more than $1 billion 2.

The E.W. Scripps Company, which brought Peanuts to market in 1950 and whose licensed merchandise was generating more than $2 billion a year in retail sales, sold its licensing arm to Iconix Brand Group for $175 million in 2010, forming a new company, Peanuts Holdings, in partnership with Schulz's family 3. DHX Media, later renamed WildBrain, bought Iconix's 80 per cent in 2017, sold 39 per cent of it to Sony for C$236 million in 2018, and agreed in December 2025 to sell the remaining 41 per cent to Sony for C$630 million 4. WildBrain's own count of what it collected from holding the brand comes to more than C$1 billion.

Decision mirror: WildBrain's reason for selling, in its own announcement, was to move the money into "IP that we own outright," which it illustrated with Strawberry Shortcake and Teletubbies 4. The family of the man who drew every strip holds 20 per cent 4.

On 2 October 1965 the Florida Gators beat Louisiana State 14-7, and the players drank from the sideline a mixture Robert Cade's laboratory had made overnight: water, salt, sugar and lemon juice 56. The lemon juice came from Cade's wife, after the first batch was spat out 5.

Cade offered the formula to his own university for $10,000. The university turned it down. Stokely-Van Camp then refused his offer to sell the drink outright for $1 million and instead paid $25,000 up front, a $5,000 bonus, and five cents on every gallon sold 7.

The university sued the inventors in July 1971, arguing that its laboratories, players and mascot had made the drink; the two sides settled in 1973 with the university taking 20 per cent of the royalties 7. By 2015 that 20 per cent had paid the University of Florida $281 million, and the inventors' trust had collected more than $1 billion 7. The brand itself passed to Quaker Oats in 1983 and to PepsiCo with Quaker in 2001 6.

Decision mirror: PepsiCo closed its purchase of poppi, a prebiotic soda that began as a home-brewed drink in Allison and Stephen Ellsworth's kitchen, on 19 May 2025 for $1.95 billion — $1.65 billion net of the $300 million of expected tax benefits 8. The Ellsworths sold a brand. Cade's team was owed a royalty on gallons.

StandardAero priced its initial public offering at $24.00 a share on 1 October 2024 and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange as SARO the next morning 9. The offering ran to 60 million shares — 53.25 million new ones and 6.75 million from existing holders — upsized from 46.5 million. The stock opened at $31 and closed its first day at $32.75, up about 36 per cent 10. Carlyle, an investor in the company since 2019, was still the majority owner 9.

Carlyle's own account lists more than $100 million of cost cuts during the pandemic, seven acquisitions, and a 30-year licence on the CFM LEAP engine, which powers the Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737 MAX 11.

The business kept growing. Second-quarter 2026 revenue was $1,599.7 million, up 4.6 per cent, at a record adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.4 per cent; the LEAP and CFM56 programmes turned profitable that quarter; and full-year revenue guidance rose to between $6,375 million and $6,500 million 12.

Decision mirror: IATA and Emerton forecast on 24 June 2026 that annual shop visits for LEAP engines will rise from about 600 to 800 in 2025 to more than 5,000 by 2040, and for Pratt & Whitney's geared turbofan from 1,000 to more than 2,000; 648 GTF-powered aircraft were grounded at the March 2025 peak, 28 per cent of that fleet 13.