Pepsi buys Rockstar for almost $4B — it's all about the "functional bevs"

"I might even be a Rockstar"... Hannah Montana said it best, but Pepsi's feeling it — it just bought Rockstar Energy for $3.85B. Russ Weiner founded the canned energy company in '01 (his mom was CFO). Pepsi has distributed Rockstar since '09, but that deal meant it couldn't launch a Mountain Dew-branded energy rival — now that it's acquired Rockstar, its energy ambitions are unlimited. The rest of Big Bev is shifting from sugary sodas too for these reasons...

• Health: Tea, coffee, kombucha, coconut water, and other lower-cal and more natural bevs have skyrocketed in demand.
• Energy: Energy drinks and coffee-flavored anything are increasingly splurgeable commodities (because we're all exhausted).

Or combine the 2 for a winning strategy... For years, Big Bev lagged in the exploding health/energy sector. Lately, it has been upping its "functional drink" game:

• ABInbev's Bud literally launched a hard green tea and hard coconut water brand... this week
• KeurigDrPepper launched "healthy" energy drink Adrenaline Shoc.
• Coke owns a 19% stake in Monster, then eventually launched its own energy drink competitor (Coke Energy) despite Monster's complaints.