LONDON (Forbes Magazine), September 13, 2008:
By Edward Beckett
Klaus J. Jacobs, chocolate magnate, philanthropist and opera lover, has died aged 71. Urs Laufer, a family spokesman, said Jacobs died of cancer early on Thursday at home in Kuesnacht, near Zurich.
Born in Germany in 1936, Jacobs founded two coffee-export companies before joining his family’s coffee business, Johan Jacobs & Co., in 1961. He expanded it into chocolate and grew the company into Europe’s biggest chocolate and coffee seller, acquiring Swiss firms Tobler and Suchard (makers of the world-famous triangular Toblerone chocolate bar) along the way. He sold the combined company, Jacobs Suchard, to American conglomerate Philip Morris (now Altria) in 1990 for 3.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion at the time).
2008 Forbes.com LLC™
September 13, 2008
SWITZERLAND: Chocolate King Jacobs Dies
.
LONDON (Forbes Magazine), September 13, 2008:
By Edward Beckett
Klaus J. Jacobs, chocolate magnate, philanthropist and opera lover, has died aged 71. Urs Laufer, a family spokesman, said Jacobs died of cancer early on Thursday at home in Kuesnacht, near Zurich.
Born in Germany in 1936, Jacobs founded two coffee-export companies before joining his family’s coffee business, Johan Jacobs & Co., in 1961. He expanded it into chocolate and grew the company into Europe’s biggest chocolate and coffee seller, acquiring Swiss firms Tobler and Suchard (makers of the world-famous triangular Toblerone chocolate bar) along the way. He sold the combined company, Jacobs Suchard, to American conglomerate Philip Morris (now Altria) in 1990 for 3.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion at the time).
2008 Forbes.com LLC™
LONDON (Forbes Magazine), September 13, 2008:
By Edward Beckett
Klaus J. Jacobs, chocolate magnate, philanthropist and opera lover, has died aged 71. Urs Laufer, a family spokesman, said Jacobs died of cancer early on Thursday at home in Kuesnacht, near Zurich.
Born in Germany in 1936, Jacobs founded two coffee-export companies before joining his family’s coffee business, Johan Jacobs & Co., in 1961. He expanded it into chocolate and grew the company into Europe’s biggest chocolate and coffee seller, acquiring Swiss firms Tobler and Suchard (makers of the world-famous triangular Toblerone chocolate bar) along the way. He sold the combined company, Jacobs Suchard, to American conglomerate Philip Morris (now Altria) in 1990 for 3.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion at the time).
2008 Forbes.com LLC™
