| 52 Million for Anheuser-Busch?
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Posted on 07/14/2008 11:59:44 AM PDT by TexasCajun
Anheuser-Busch's board has accepted a $52 million takeover offer from Belgian brewer InBev, creating the world's largest brewer, the two companies announced late Sunday evening.
The company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev, and InBev CEO Carlos Brito will be the CEO of the combined company.
"Together, Anheuser-Busch and InBev will accomplish much more than each can on its own," Brito told reporters in a conference call Monday morning.
The announcement ends a month of hostility between the brewer of Budweiser and InBev, which traded lawsuits when InBev tried to oust A-B's board.
"We always tried to engage with the Anheuser-Busch board, and now as a combined team, we want to look forward as opposed to looking backward," Brito says.
The directors of the combined company will be comprised of InBev's board, A-B President and CEO August Busch IV and one other current or former member of A-B's board.
The North American headquarters for the combined company will be St. Louis, and Brito promised to keep all 12 of A-B's U.S. breweries open.
When asked about the potential for job cuts in St. Louis and elsewhere, Brito skirted the question by pointing out that InBev has added 12,000 jobs in the last three years, and that A-B's plan to cut costs and and offer employees early retirement will still be executed.
Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck's will become the company's leading global brands, using InBev's existing distribution network, according to a combined statement from the company.
Reports surfaced Friday that A-B's board was poised to accept the offer from InBev, which sweetened its offer by $5 to $70 a share in an effort to seal a friendly deal.
InBev, brewer of Stella Artois, unveiled its original $46.3 billion, $65-a-share offer in June, a number the brewer of Budweiser dismissed as insultingly low.
InBev then sought to oust the American company's board and replace it with its own slate, while A-B accused InBev of misleading shareholders about its financial backing and blasted it for having operations in Cuba.
"When I look at other American companies that have done this [extended global reach] before, like McDonald's, Pepsi, Frito-Lays," Brito says, "I feel very excited about how we have the footprint, knowledge of the market and America in a bottle."
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (NYSE: BUD), through its Anheuser-Busch Inc. subsidiary, is the leading domestic brewer, holding a 48.5 percent share of U.S. beer sales. The company also manufactures and recycles aluminum cans and operates theme parks.
Who's next? General Motors? General Electric?
I don’t think anyone’s going to be buying General Motors. Not at any price.
52 Million for Anheuser-Busch?
Quite a deal...
I think we should let Chuck Schumer run GM, since he’s proven to be so good at financial matters in the banking industry.
What a putz is Schumer.
My coworker has a cousin in Scotland who likes to by “imported” Budweiser. Cracks me up.
I was gonna say that this smells like the Daimler-Benz / Chrysler ‘merger’. Incidentally, I wonder if Daimler would like to have that decision back?
I was amused a few years ago to hear that the hottest beer in the Los Angeles area was... Yuengling Lager. That’s a local PA brew in case you’ve never run across it. Still family-owned.
I’m just waiting for the idiot libs to demand an investigation into Big Alcohol.
Great, so now there is a chance the beer can be made with something other than rice. Excellent.
Such investment helps our economy grow, but I'd much rather see more of the benefits of that recovery and growth stay in the US.
Foreign investment is a good thing, foreign control isn't always a bad thing, but but it definitely can be bad.
Pottsville, PA is my hometown. And I must say that I am not surprised to hear this. They totally revamped their lineup in 1987, and they have taken off ever since.
Well, at least we aren’t losing a good beer!
Now I have to find another AMERICAN beer to drink.
| 52 Million for Anheuser-Busch?
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Perhaps the Belgians will teach Budweiser how to make beer.
So what's it going to be? Should all the red blooded Harley riding beer drinking Americans ditch Bud? I wonder if they/we will.
Budweiser makes beer?
Yea, its also funny back east to see how they treat Sierra Nevada. That was the cheap local crap beer we used to drink when I was out there... back here they treat it as something special. Sort of the invertion of Yeungling... of course every time I’ve had a SN here, its been completely skunked (though it was pretty skunky to begin with).
I’m from down-the-line in Harrisburg. Yuengling Lager, or just Lager as it’s called down here, is my brand.
Article says 52 MILLION, but the headline says 52B.
BUD - No longer a domestic beer
Oh Jeeze! I kinda like S-N. I guess I’ll have to stop giggling at the Los Angelinos when they rave over their Yuengling like it’s some exotic microbrew.
....ditch Bud.....
I did. I now prefer Mich Honey Lager.
I once owned shares in Oasis Inc, a homemade cooler that dispensed Bud in bottles 24 hours a day. People would come from all over campus on Sunday to plunk a quarter and a nickle in our machine for a frosty Bud.
In percentage terms, it was the best investment I evr made.
I like Yuengling for the money. I do prefer Stella or Beck’s or any number of imports and microbrews. But they cost more. So I should like them, right?
Now if Inbev can get Bud to taste like Stella and sell it for the price of Bud, I’d buy that for a dollar.
For once, not my typo! :)
Hey, you are free to giggle, just remember there is someone back east giggling at the folks here who are treating Sierra Nevada the same way.
People in St. Louis are afraid of downsizing now. Layoffs, Bud in 11 oz cans, and the clydesdaies replaced with shetland ponies.
How likely is it that Inbev will ‘reformulate’ Bud? I figure the flagship brands, Bud & Bud Lite, are probably safe. Wouldn’t want to do anything like “New Coke” now would we?
I guess all the complaints of InBev’s connections to Cuba were just to drive the price up.
SN Pale Ale is pretty good. Yuengling...not so much.
IS Genesee beer still available up north?
I guess the hopps are always greener...
Why? Do you suppose the directors of InBev will personally urinate in every 50th can or something?
It will be made in the same plants by the same people. All that's changed is that the financial backing is now heavily Belgian. Plus every 50th Bud will taste better, of course :0)
I wasn’t too thrilled when A-B purchased Rolling Rock, figuring that A-B would eventually get around to tinkering with the formula. But I don’t think Inbev will do anything to Bud — at least not for many years.
The biggest thing I’ve found back east about SN is that I guess its either sitting in transit too long to get here, or they don’t sell it fast enough once it is here, like I said when I do break down and have one here, its always skunked.
Of the two, honestly, I’ll admittedly take a Yeungling, though I’m not a huge fan of either. Not that I didn’t put down my share of SN when I was out in Cali. But then again out there it was the cheap local special at the bar, just like Yeungling is here.
You are on to something.
IMO, next to the Germans, the Belgians are the masters of making beer. They could easily improve this horrible so-called beer.
The Belgians can replace water with Budweiser as it's base ingredient in breweries, and nobody would notice.
Kasey needs a real girlfriend, not some ‘beard’.
No way they'll replace the Clydesdales--one Clydesdale can produce up to four kegs of Bud per day, compared to just half a keg for a Shetland pony.
No way they'll replace the Clydesdales--one Clydesdale can produce up to four kegs of Bud per day, compared to just half a keg for a Shetland pony.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to be buying General Motors”
Agreed (lol)! Although product quality-wise, I think Buttwiper is @$$ too.
You should see the 8 oz baby beers they sell in La.
My ONLY concern regarding this takeover is how InBev will manage the Busch Garden Theme Park franchise (about 8 parks in total, including several SeaWorlds).
Busch Garden is a premiere theme park, but exists mostly to help put a family-friendly face on drunkenness.
I don’t know if they operate the parks at a profit or not, but Bush Gardens Williamsburg is a very clean, excellently maintained (visually) park, with several good shows. It’s a nice place just to walk around.
And their “Water Country USA” in Williamsburg is an excellent water park.
Now, the parks are already more expensive than other theme parks (56 dollars per ticket vs Kings Dominion’s $49 I think). But if it got much more expensive, they’d lose revenue.
And if they start cutting back, or decide it isn’t worth it and sell out the parks, it would be a loss.
Bud is the nadir of bottled beer, possibly below Rolling Rock.
BUT, Americans who drink BUd should swear off it and hope to break the back of the Belgian conglomerate who bought it.
In 1773, REAL Americans would be dumping “BUD” into Boston Harbor.
Remember, Bridgestone bought Firestone for something near $80/share and they were worth less than $8/share.
The US imports more than 50% of its energy supplies. Now you know where the dollars go. In another ten years this nation will own nothing, and Americans will be wage slaves to Europeans (just as they were in the 19th century).
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It's a typo. Those are billions with a 'b'.