After a stint working for his father, a corporate raider who helped break companies apart, Martin E. Franklin has now spent the last 15 years building up sprawling businesses.

His crowning moment came on Monday after agreeing to sell Jarden — with its 120 brands, from Mr. Coffee to Yankee Candle — to Newell Rubbermaid, creating a $16 billion consumer juggernaut.

Mr. Franklin, who is 51, will be a director of the combined company and will be among its largest individual shareholders. And he will be able to focus more attention on his two other, acquisition-focused companies.

Mr. Franklin initially had no intention of selling Jarden and had not sought out a wide group of potential buyers. But his workload had built up this year. The share prices of the two companies he had created — Platform Specialty Products, set up to buy specialty chemical companies, and the frozen-food company Nomad Foods — have fallen sharply in the last six months. Both companies are backed by William A. Ackman.