Brad Jacobs’ QXO has first building products acquisition, as Beacon OKs sale

John Kingston

Thu, Mar 20, 2025, 7:31 AM 4 min read

Brad Jacobs, who put together less-than-truckload carrier XPO and its later spinoffs, 3PL RXO and logistics provider GXO, has snagged his first acquisition in the building products sector through his newest company, QXO.

In what was shaping up to be a hostile takeover attempt, QXO (NYSE: QXO) and Beacon Roofing Supply (NASDAQ: BECN) announced early Thursday that they had reached an agreement to acquire Beacon for $124.35 per share. The total value of the deal is about $11 billion.

When QXO first publicly announced its desire to acquire Beacon on Jan. 15, the price offered was $124.25 per share, just 10 cents less than the final acquisition. The formal tender offer launched Jan. 27.

Beacon’s stock price closed Wednesday at $121.53. Just before QXO announced its desire to acquire Beacon, the stock price of the building products supplier was trading near $102.

Beacon reported net sales of $9.8 billion for calendar year 2024.

The agreement comes about two weeks after Beacon put out a statement calling QXO’s offer “an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of the current macro environment and acquire Beacon at a discount to its intrinsic value for the benefit of QXO but to the detriment of Beacon’s shareholders.” But soon after that statement, it was reported that the two sides were in discussions toward reaching a deal.

While news of QXO’s interest in Beacon first emerged in January, a statement released Thursday by Beacon Chairman Stuart Randle said QXO had first approached Beacon in November.

‘“Since QXO made its initial offer last November, we have evaluated strategic alternatives to enhance value for all of our shareholders,” Randle said. “Following our Board’s comprehensive review, we concluded that this transaction is in the best interests of Beacon and its shareholders given the immediate premium and certainty of value in cash it offers, particularly in an uncertain environment.”

Although a move into consolidating building supply companies may seem a significant change in direction for Jacobs and his prior focus on freight and logistics, he has said he believes the consolidation of the ecosystem of building products suppliers is actually a supply chain story. Jacobs said from the launch of QXO that he saw the industry as fragmented, and that consolidation could provide huge cost savings and synergies, with supply chain benefits as one of the key areas for growth.

In commenting on the transaction, Ryan Merkel of the research firm of William Blair was positive about the deal.

“Beacon employees should feel energized to be part of QXO’s journey to $50 billion of sales,” he said in a report. “Beacon gives QXO a strong nationwide footprint and a business that lends itself well to other adjacencies. Beacon had already started to dig into waterproofing, and we expect QXO to investigate similar adjacent verticals in future moves.”