Washington  - PepsiCo Inc, the chief rival to Coca-Cola for world domination of the drinks market, Monday offered 6 billion dollars in cash and stock to buy out other shareholders of its two biggest bottlers in North America.

The move represents an about-face from the 1990s, when Coca-Cola and then PepsiCo spun off their capital-intensive bottling operations.

The offers of 29.50 dollars per share for stock it doesnt already own in Pepsi Bottling Group Inc and 23.27 dollars for PepsiAmericas Inc. shares reprsent a 17 per cent premium over closing priceirs on Friday.

The moves would give PepsiCo, which also makes the sports drink Gatorade and Tropicana orange juice, full control over about 80 per cent of its North American beverage market.

Rising commodity prices have been eroding the profitability of the drinks branch, and Pepsi's moves would follow Coca-Cola's successful strategy since 2005 to buy up underperforming bottlers from Germany to the Philippines to spin them off. (dpa)