Ralston Purina Company was a St. Louis, Missouri,–based American conglomerate with substantial holdings in animal feed, food, pet food, consumer products, and entertainment. Founded by William H. Danforth in 1894. On December 12, 2001, it merged with Swiss food-giant Nestlé's Friskies division to form Nestlé Purina PetCompany.
In 1994, the Ralston "human food" operations of the Ralston Purina Company were spun off into a new company called Ralcorp Holdings, which it's currently owns by Post Holdings since June 1, 2021.
Ralston Purina was the original manufacturer of Cookie Crisp and Chex until 1997 when Ralston Purina sold it to Cereal Partners Worldwide. Cookie Crisp under the General Mills brand in USA, while it under the Nestlé brand outside.
In the 1980's, Ralston Purina under the "Ralston" name did tries to manufactured a Transformers cereal, which it similar to General Mills' own Coca Puffs, but it was never released.
Unreleased Ralston Transformers cereal
Cookie Crisp promoting special Jazz action figure variant.
Ralcorp Holdings
Nestlé Purina's current logo since 2001.