Weber Blackstone CEO details merger and FTC delay
Roger Dahle said Weber Blackstone’s merger cleared after a federal staffing delay, leaving him to combine Blackstone’s fast-growing griddle business with Weber.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Weber Blackstone CEO Roger Dahle said the company’s 2024 merger cleared U.S. antitrust review in May 2025 after delays tied to the federal transition, putting him in charge of combining Blackstone with one of the best-known names in grilling. In an interview with The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Dahle described a deal that began with earlier talks about Weber buying Blackstone and ended with Blackstone’s founder running the combined business.
Dahle founded Blackstone in 2008, according to The Verge. The griddle company gained wider attention during the pandemic as smashburger videos spread on TikTok, The Verge reported.
According to Dahle, Blackstone’s rapid growth pushed him to seek a dependable manufacturing partner. He said he began working with a Taiwanese family that had factories in mainland China, and that the family became an equity partner in Blackstone in 2015.
Dahle said that partner later wanted to sell its stake, which led Blackstone into talks with bankers and investors. During that period, he met Byron Trott, whose firm BDT had owned Weber since 2010, Dahle told Decoder.
At first, Dahle said, Weber explored buying Blackstone, but the transaction did not come together. Blackstone then came close to going public through a SPAC, he said, before market conditions worsened and the deal fell apart.
Dahle said a private equity firm bought out the Chinese manufacturing partner’s shares in 2022. By 2024, he said, Blackstone had reached in two years goals that partner expected would take five, prompting another look at a transaction.
Trott then proposed combining Weber and Blackstone, Dahle said. The companies agreed to merge by the end of 2024, then waited for the Federal Trade Commission to complete its review, he told Decoder.
FTC review stretched into 2025
Dahle said the antitrust review was delayed because the agreement was signed in December, when holidays slowed the process, and then because the new administration’s FTC commissioners were not fully in place. He said the agency told the companies they could proceed once the commission was fully staffed.
The review lasted until May 2025, according to Dahle. He told Decoder that the combined company had been operating together for just over a year at the time of the interview.
Dahle rejected the idea that the deal gave Weber Blackstone pricing power in outdoor cooking. He said major retailers sell their own private-label products, and consumers can decline to buy if they dislike a price.
According to Dahle, retailers such as Lowe’s, Home Depot and Walmart carry house-brand gas grills when they believe those products meet a desired price and feature mix. He said Blackstone does not supply private-label grills, though he knows many Asian factories that do.
Weber integration is the next task
Dahle described Weber as a strong legacy brand with quality products and capable employees. He said the company’s consumer reputation and retail sell-through remained healthy, while its profitability had suffered.
According to Dahle, Weber had too much executive turnover, conflicting ideas about serving customers and a cost structure shaped partly by its time as a public company. He said expenses needed a different approach after the company returned to private ownership.
The Verge noted that BDT bought a majority stake in Weber in 2010, Weber went public in 2021, and BDT took it private again in 2022. Dahle said BDT was not necessarily seeking a buyer before the merger, but saw value in pairing Weber’s legacy brand with Blackstone’s faster-growing business.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.