What Happened to Pepsi? From 90% of Coke to Under Half

What Happened to Pepsi? From 90% of Coke to Under Half At the end of 2022 PepsiCo was worth about 90% of Coca-Cola. Today it is worth about 46%, even though it sells nearly twice as much. In September 2025 an activist investor, Elliott, disclosed a $4 billion stake and blamed "self-inflicted share losses in soda". What happened? From a pharmacy in New Bern, North Carolina, to the 1975 Pepsi Challenge, the 1985 New Coke blunder, the sip test that explains why taste did not decide the war, the snack and juice empire PepsiCo built instead, and the 2025-26 Elliott campaign. This is the story of a brand that won the taste test, lost the war, and then tried to become something else. Chapters: 0:00 - What Happened to Pepsi 0:59 - The Other Guy 3:04 - The Challenger 5:21 - The Sip Test 7:56 - The House of Brands 10:30 - The Activist 13:35 - Not Coke Business Documentary tells the decisions, ambitions and strategic mistakes behind the world's most famous brands. #pepsi #pepsico #cocacola #businessdocumentary #documentary