its indirect ownership interest in CCE's European operations to New CCE as part of the consideration to acquire the 67 percent of CCE's North American business that was not already owned by the Company. 

Although the CCE transaction was structured to be primarily cashless, under the terms of the merger agreement, we agreed to assume $8.9 billion of CCE debt. In the event the actual CCE debt on the acquisition date was less than the agreed amount, we agreed to make a cash payment to New CCE for the difference. As of the acquisition date, the debt assumed by the Company was $7.9 billion. The total cash consideration paid to New CCE as part of the transaction was $1.4 billion, which included $1.0 billion related to the debt shortfall. 

In contemplation of the closing of our acquisition of CCE's North American business, we reached an agreement with DPS to distribute certain DPS brands in territories where DPS brands had been distributed by CCE prior to the CCE transaction. Under the terms of our agreement with DPS, concurrently with the closing of the CCE transaction, we entered into license agreements with DPS to distribute Dr Pepper trademark brands in the U.S., Canada Dry in the Northeast U.S., and Canada Dry and C' Plus in Canada, and we made a net one-time cash payment of $715 million to DPS. Under the license agreements, the Company agreed to meet certain performance obligations to distribute DPS products in retail and foodservice accounts and vending machines. The license agreements have initial terms of 20 years, with automatic 20-year renewal periods unless otherwise terminated under the terms of the agreements. The license agreements replaced agreements between DPS and CCE existing immediately prior to the completion of the CCE transaction. In addition, we entered into an agreement with DPS to include Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper in our Coca-Cola Freestyle fountain dispensers in certain outlets throughout the United States. The Coca-Cola Freestyle agreement has a term of 20 years. 

On October 2, 2010, we sold all of our ownership interests in our Norwegian and Swedish bottling operations to New CCE for $0.9 billion in cash. In addition, in connection with the acquisition of CCE's North American business, we granted to New CCE the right to negotiate the acquisition of our majority interest in our German bottler at any time from 18 to 39 months after February 25, 2010, at the then current fair value and subject to terms and conditions as mutually agreed. 

The Nonalcoholic Beverage Segment of the Commercial Beverage Industry 

We operate in the highly competitive nonalcoholic beverage segment of the commercial beverage industry. We face strong competition from numerous other general and specialty beverage companies. We, along with other beverage companies, are affected by a number of factors, including, but not limited to, cost to manufacture and distribute products, consumer spending, economic conditions, availability and quality of water, consumer preferences, inflation, political climate, local and national laws and regulations, foreign currency exchange fluctuations, fuel prices and weather patterns. 

Our Objective 

Our