Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold to InBev

[Bozita]

Source: NY Times


July 14, 2008
Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold to InBev

By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
Anheuser-Busch agreed on Sunday night to sell itself to the Belgian brewer InBev for about $52 billion, people briefed on the matter said, putting control of the nation’s largest beer maker and a fixture of American culture into a European rival’s hands.

The all-cash deal, for $70 a share, would create the world’s largest brewer, uniting the maker of Budweiser and Michelob with the producer of Stella Artois, Bass and Brahma. Together, the two companies would have sales of more than $36 billion a year, surpassing the current No. 1 brewer, SABMiller of London.

The combined company is expected to be named Anheuser-Busch InBev, fulfilling a promise by the Belgian company to include the Anheuser name in the new brewer’s title, people briefed on the matter said. Anheuser will be given two seats on the board, including one for August A. Busch IV, the company’s chief executive and a scion of its controlling family.

For millions, Budweiser is synonymous with American beer. Because of Anheuser’s huge advertising budget and strong distribution network, few brands are as omnipresent in daily life as Budweiser and its more popular sibling, Bud Light.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/business/worldbusiness/14beer.html?_r=1&ref=europe&oref=slogin

---

This one's for you.

[NutmegYankee]

1. Will Bud taste better? n/t

[WCGreen]

2. Still tastes like, as my daddy said, Panther Piss....

[AllHereTruth]

5. American Piss Beer

Bud is the staple of "American Piss Beer" being marketed to ignorant college youth with no real beer knowledge.

Granted i am one of those college aged youth, But unlike most, I never let a Bud anywhere near my mouth. - Sorry to say, but American Mass Produced beer has NOTHING on imports, or smalltime microbreweries.

[Sherman A1]

9. Tastes differ, certainly but in any event

a whole lot of people will be losing their jobs or taking significant cuts in their take home pay. This is not a good thing for the people who work there.

[YOY]

27. Try Yuengling (Pronounced Ying-ling by us east coast elitists!)

America's oldest brewery and beer done right. Not a micro brew but definitely some GREAT tasting beer that only a fool would "chug". No skunky taste like Molson but a nice smooth beer with no water downed aftertaste. I don't know who owns it other than I assume the original family but it is a great beer that I would never be ashamed to drink. It's not incredibly overpriced either.

http://www.yuengling.com/index.htm

Chugging is for drunks and binge drinkers (sometimes one and the same) who need to learn a bit about good beer.

[WriteDown]

51. Excellent beer...

I miss it a great deal.

[Bake]

53. Don't you just LOVE "beer snobs?"

Look down your nose all you want. When I come in from a hot day working in the yard, a good ice-cold Bud is as good as any other beer.

However, I'll probably switch to an American-owned-and-made beer. Nothing wrong with microbrews or imports; I just don't like to pay $8 or $9 for a six-pack.

Bake

[YOY]

59. The beer I mentioned up thread is 8 or 9 for a 12 pack

And kicks Buds ass left and right. I don't care how hot it is. Bud, Miller, and Coors all taste like piss. Michelob is somewhat semi-paletable...but not by much more.

Yeungling puts them all to shame.

And yes owned and operated in the USA.

[Megahurtz]

71. Blech.

Bud. Headache Beer. :puke:

[LanternWaste]

66. American Piss. Micro-Piss. Imported Piss.

American Piss. Micro-Piss. Imported Piss.

But it's *still* all of it piss. :)

[Raskolnik]

82. I bet you're a lot of fun at parties.

There is nothing better than a college aged youth holding forth about how the truly sophisticated palate cries out at the affront of an *American Mass Produced beer*.

[Maine-ah]

16. we call it horse piss up here.

:puke:

[mopinko]

28. my first thought.

if they teach them how to make beer, that could only be good.
i wonder, tho. so many small labels and local brew popping up in the last 10 years. at the same time, inbev has been storming through europe, grabbing up as many labels as it can. here's hoping that people quit drinking that sorry excuse for beer, and start drinking the good stuff. :beer:

[AndyTiedye]

60. THIS Budweiser Tastes MUCH Better

[Avalux]

3. And Cindy McCain will sell her 1 mil in shares for a 30% profit.

We won't hear the old man say it's a bad idea.

[Maine-ah]

17. but yet Obama is the elitist....

:eyes:

[oldskool]

24. Like the sale of gas and oil investments

in Sudan a couple months ago. It's probably just another
coincidence. The good old North American Insider Trade
Agreement, I mean NAFTA.

[sasquatch]

4. So the Busch family no longer runs their own company

:shrug:
Irony abounds.

[Initech]

6. So does that mean we'll get beer that doesnt taste like rat piss?

[DarthDem]

7. I wouldn't know

I've never had rat piss.

Ironically, an ad on SportCenter tonight touted the pre-Prohibition, 100% American origins of A-B. So much for all that! I don't find this encouraging.

[dipsydoodle]

22. If it gets changed to the taste of some of the Belgian beers

you'll be laughing.

There's a chain of restuarants here in the UK called Belgos. They usually stock 40 or so different ones including rasberry :)

[AndyTiedye]

61. If They Can Make it Taste Like Belgian Beer I'll Buy It

[OhioChick]

8. Soon....

There will be no American companies left.

[Megahurtz]

73. Yup, It's getting pretty scary.

Maybe there will be no America left. Things are looking pret-ty weird right about now.

[DirtyDawg]

10. Absolutely the epitome...

...of the ultimate downside of the holy concept of 'shareholder value'. American corporations have been using that as an excuse for everything they have done for the past 20-25 years and the result has been a hollowing out of what corporations should, and used to, stand for in this and any other society. The almighty dollar...I got mine and that's all that matters. Nobody cares that AB has wrapped itself in all things American...that the 'Brand' reputation of Anheuser Busch will, with this move, forever change and can no longer pretend to be what it once was. Let alone use the grandchildren to run the company and do the commercials. Plus the Belgians may have other plans for those Clydesdales, like exchanging them for the Belgian breed of draft horses...a sad day for the country, no matter what you think of the beer. I mean can you imagine what bubba's gonna say when they tell him that that Bud he's drinking was made by a company that also makes Stella Artois - sounds damn-like French, don't it?

[Dr.Phool]

11. I wonder if they'll keep the theme parks.

We've been to Grants Farm, near St. Louis a few times. Free admission, free beer, and a lot of animals and nature. They breed and train the Clydesdales there too.

We took a day and went to Busch Gardens in Tampa last week. My wife is a scaredy-cat, and won't go on any rides, but, there's plenty of other stuff to see and do. We got a nice picture of her face, with a giraffe eating lettuce off the top of her head.

[DirtyDawg]

33. With any luck...

...they'll get rid of those first...then the Clydesdales...then that lousy Budweiser Select.

[comtec]

12. Best beer company buys worst!

ok I can't prove either rankings, but it is a funny headline :)
are they TRYING to be marginal?
Was success and accolades getting old?
I guess they had to much success with beer... now they want to try failure?

[dbt]

13. Now, here's Ed Bruce on the Budweiser Stage!

This is the last cowboy song,
The end of a hundred-year waltz.
Voices sound sad as they're singing along,
Another piece of America's lost.

He rides a feedlot and clerks in a market
On weekends, selling tobacco and beer.
His dreams of tomorrow surrounded by fences,
But he'll dream tonight of when fences weren't here...

[liberal N proud]

14. Buy American? If you can find it.

American is no longer American.

[onehandle]

15. The world's worst beers will now be owned by Europeans.

Money makes the world bland.

[Kip Humphrey]

18. Anheuser-BUSHED

[LeftHander]

19. American wealthy cash out..as world picks the bones of U.S economy....

That should basically be the headline...

Middle class and poor left holding the bag and the bills.

[Megahurtz]

75. Really.

The joke's on us! :+

[Vinca]

20. What is American about America anymore?

They might as well plant a Century 21 sign on the White House lawn.

[Eurobabe]

87. Oh I'm sure someone in the Middle East would take that dilapidated

mansion off our hands for pennies on the worthless dollar. :sarcasm:

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. I love that red-blooded American heartland Nascar-watching beer-drinkers

Are now sending their money to a bunch of "effete Belgian snobs." It's so delicious I can barely stand it.

:rofl:

[Raskolnik]

81. Yeah, all those jobs lost, all that money shipped overseas..hilarious!

Take that you stupid rednecks!

[alcibiades_mystery]

85. This Bud's for You!

:rofl:

[Raskolnik]

86. Good one! It's always funny when foreign corporations buy out American businesses!

And its ok to laugh about all the jobs that will be lost and the billions of dollars that will leave the U.S., because the product AB makes is enjoyed by (snicker) working class people! What a bunch of fools!

(and can you post more animated smiley-faces? those are so funny you don't even *need* words!)

[WriteDown]

88. I keep wondering why working people

don't flock to the Democratic Party. I'm trying to put my finger on it, but its mystifying. :sarcasm:

[alcibiades_mystery]

98. Working class voters vote overwhelmingly for Democrats

[alcibiades_mystery]

89. What's wrong?

No likey globalization?

Quelle dommage.

[Raskolnik]

92. No, nothing's wrong! You're right to stick it to that stupid American heartland!

And if someone calls you on your bullshit, you can just pretend you were engaging in pithy commentary about globalization rather than making snotty cheap shots at working class people.

And, if you top if off with a some kind of pretentious and tacked-on French phrase, you'll really be the coolest kid in school.

[alcibiades_mystery]

93. Yeah, you're saving the working class!

You're a working class hero! You're really getting the cool kids this time!

Get over yourself. Have a Bud. Save a Belgian private school child and stop being such a whiner.

When the Bud drinking, Europe-hatin' "rednecks" (as you call them) recognize that working class activism is itself global, rather than your pathetic and self-destructive little nationalist fetish, maybe this type of shit won't happen. But you go on and keep pretending that backwards nationalistic stupidity is actually working class activism. It obviously makes you feel important.

[entanglement]

94. I think you're being too harsh - it's unreasonable to expect the average "redn*ck" to be class-aware

Not when all sources of information - media, society and the political system provide contrary messages to the extent that the very word 'socialism' is anathema to the majority of US workers (you could say the bosses did their jobs too well).

I feel frustrated by nationalist chauvinism too, but I believe it is a curable (albeit stubborn) ailment afflicting the working class world-wide.

[alcibiades_mystery]

97. It's absolutely curable

But I suspect we'll need more globalization, not less, before we get there.

[Raskolnik]

99. Could you please point out what has betrayed my "self-destructive little nationalist fetish"

You're obviously a lot smarter than those fools that lament the sale of another multi-billion dollar American company to a foreign entity, so please point out where I have displayed a "self-destructive little nationlist fetish."

Thanks.

[WriteDown]

23. Just what I expected....

Glee and jokes from many posters. It is amazing how many people take so much pride in another devastating blow to American unions. Do a little research on InBev. Not exactly known for being union friendly. It is amazing to me how many posters can laugh about what will inevitably be the end of 1000's of union jobs. Not to mention that AB is the lifeblood of St. Louis. Seems that whether its the Japanese selling Prius' or the Belgians selling beer, many are ecstatic as long as it is not an American company doing welll.

[progressoid]

46. well...

Some joking is a defense mechanism to avoid the realities of yet another failure of the American system. I don't think many see this as a good thing.

I support the Prius not because doing so bashes an American company (two of the three cars I've owned were American) but because of it's fuel efficiency.

[Dammit Ann]

25. McCain and others will make millions with this deal.

"Many politicians, including Matthew R. Blunt, the Republican governor of Missouri, and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, expressed support for keeping Anheuser independent.

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has major ties to Anheuser. His wife, Cindy, is the chairwoman of Hensley & Company, a large Anheuser distributor, and holds a significant amount of Anheuser stock.

The battle grew nasty early on, as both Anheuser and InBev resorted to lawsuits as bludgeons. Last week, InBev began a campaign to oust Anheuser’s board, while Anheuser accused its suitor of lying about its financial commitments and criticized its beer business in Cuba.

But Mr. Busch, the company’s chief executive whose family has controlled Anheuser for more than a century, was facing pressure to consider a deal. Anheuser’s stock had remained mostly stagnant in recent years, but has climbed since InBev made its offer public last month.

Several of Anheuser’s large shareholders, including the billionaire Warren E. Buffett, had indicated that they were leaning toward supporting InBev, people briefed on the matter said. The talks were confidential."

From the same article...

[daggahead]

26. Yet another American business ...

... sold to a foreign company.

economyincrisis.org

The Great American Sell-off

[poppysgal]

29. What about those Super Bowl ads?

I absolutely enjoy watching them every year.:toast:

[JCMach1]

30. Why isn't anyone screaming about foreigners buying an American icon?

???

[DirtyDawg]

35. Look friend...

...think about it, if we've been willing to sell the country's soul for a few thousand dollars in George Bush's tax reductions, what makes you think selling a few American 'icons' will matter one iota? Just remember, our corporations have completely given themselves over to 'globalization', which really means, in the words of Navin Johnson, 'Oh, so it's a profit deal, that takes the pressure off.'

[izzybeans]

31. Still won't increase the buttwiper's sales overseas. Piss water.

Hopefully they don't replicate what they did the Brazilian breweries here, however.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

68. You mean Antarctica / Brahma / Skol in the USA? I thought their presence there was vestigial at most

Things didn't change much here in Brazil, beer-wise.

[izzybeans]

69. I meant the downsizing they were reporting here when the buy-out

was first brought up.

[Ian David]

32. I've been boycotting the right-wing donating Budweiser for years, anyway. n/t

[WriteDown]

34. That makes no sense....

So because an American company with union workers donates to the Right-Wing it deserves to go out of business. So if my father-in-law donates to the Right-Wing, therefore his daughter deserves it when I smack her around a bit. Puhlease. :sarcasm:

[Ian David]

36. You're right. We should be forced to patronize companies we disagree with.

That way, they'll stop being evil bastards.

Give it a fucking rest.

It's my fucking money and I'll spend it where I fucking want.

[WriteDown]

38. Go out and buy a Prius....

Just don't blame everyone else when the UAW and all other unions collapse. You're one of those "everyone else needs to make a sacrifice" kind of people I guess.

[Ian David]

39. Already DID buy a Prius...

[WriteDown]

40. Not a surprise....

You may be losing some mpg's with the weight of all those stickers though, ha. As another wise poster wrote, "No single raindrop thinks they are responsible for the flood."

[Ian David]

42. Thanks, Roger. n/t

[Ian David]

41. If the American companies cared about making a product Americans want, Union workers...

... would have better job security.

Unions need to put Environmental Responsibility into their negotiations with those asshole corporations that keep sending their jobs overseas.

[WriteDown]

43. Yes...

because there are 0 good cars in the GM or Ford fleets . Repeat after me: "Every good car comes from Japan. Japanese management cares more about their workers. Less wages is good as long as it the Japanese paying less." :sarcasm:

[Ian David]

44. Missing the point, Roger. n/t

[WriteDown]

45. Please make a valid one then, Ronald.

[Ian David]

47. I would, Hiter, but...

...oops... someone invoked Hitler.

Conversation over.

[AndyTiedye]

63. Found One Good SUV from Ford

Ford Escape Hybrid
We own one of these.

Thing is, any new American CAR on the market actually gets WORSE mileage than this SUV, and about HALF the mileage of a Prius.
There WERE some Saturns that did much better, but GM stopped making those cars and replaced them with re-badged Chevys. BIG mistake!
If they were still building those cars today, they would not be in the mess they are in now.
I suppose we would save some union jobs if we all bought Hummers, but it isn't gonna happen!
It is not the fault of the workers that their managment drank Cheney's cheap-oil-from-Iraq kool-aid,
but they are building stuff nobody wants, and that cannot continue for long.

Perhaps the same is true for Anheuser-Busch. Their beers are awful!
They had actually convinced me that I didn't like beer until I tried some German beers
Now with all the microbrews, there are plenty of good local and regional beers,
and they get most of my business, such as it is.

[Ignis]

101. WE didn't make the decision to focus on Hummers.

Don't blame the (smart, eco-conscious) consumer for buying a Prius. Blame US auto manufacturers for stalling and putting all their eggs in the hydrogen basket for the past decade, while Japanese car manufacturers released several great hybrids.

Oh, and not everyone in San Francisco drinks lattes, and not everyone who drinks lattes lives in San Francisco. :eyes: Those "effete librul" memes are out of place here.

Welcome, and enjoy your stay.

[AndyTiedye]

64. How About Because They Make LOUSY BEER!

[DirtyDawg]

48. They don't hold a candle to Coors...

...now that's the one that's financed an entire rightwing movement.

By the way, do you know how Coors Light and screwing in a canoe are alike? Their both 'effin' close to water'.

[Ian David]

49. Agreed, Coors is the worst. But according to some, if they're unionized, I am required to drink it.

[WriteDown]

50. So I take it you don't use Green detergents.....

because they may require a little extra elbow grease. Didn't know there were any 4Fer's left.

[Ian David]

52. I split my dish detergent 50/50 with EcoVer (organic) and Cascade, and only run it after 8 PM.

I also use a high-efficiency laundry detergent that's dye/fragrance free, cold-water only with an organic fabric softener.

[lonestarnot]

58. woohoo!

:woohoo:

[Doctor_J]

37. So hopefully Bud will taste like Bass Ale pretty soon

Seriously. I was at a party one night and someone brought me a glass of that "Michelob carb-free". I took a swig and said, "Thanks, I like club soda". Plus AB products seem to overstimulate my digestive tract.

[Bake]

54. I'm really shocked at the number of freakin' SNOBS in here.

Elitists. Piss off. Sometimes it's really, really hard to be a Democrat. Nothing like the snobbish "liberal elite" to get the day off with a whimper.

Bake

[Mudoria]

55. Surprising isn't it?

Rejoicing in lost jobs (of course it's not their job). Like my Bud Light... they can keep their Euro piss.

[Bake]

56. I hope I have the opportunity

to offer them an ice-cold Bud some sweltering August day when their car is broken down in the middle of the desert. We'll see if they turn it down then. "What? You don't have an import?"

Bake

ed. for typos

[Sentath]

77. No sir, I won't turn it down because of the taste

But, because I have enough sense to know that beer is dehydrating (or at least insufficiently hydrating)

[superduperfarleft]

65. I genuinely like Budweiser.

:shrug:

I normally stick with PBR when I go out because it's cheaper, but I never got the point of paying $5+ per beer just so people don't see me drinking a domestic.

[AndyTiedye]

70. We're "Elitists" if We Don't Like Budweiser??

[Megahurtz]

76. LOL.

You're funny!

[Dukkha]

80. oh get over it

it's just fucking beer! So we have to drink swill we can't stand to be "tolerant"?

proud to be a beer elitist

[Mike Daniels]

100. What's funny is the American micro-brews are the ones winning the awards

not the mass produced foreign beers.

A Belgian ale is right up my alley every now and then but I can find equally good American made craft beers that are just as pleasing to the palate and which cost $10 for a six back vs. $10 for one bottle.

[DS1]

102. I drink Bud now and then, but I know it's shit

but it's cheap shit. And I still drink it.

I wonder where I fall in the elitist category.

[tomreedtoon]

57. As George Carlin once said, "Screw Augie."

He said this in one of the two live concerts I saw him in. While drinking water on stage in St. Louis. Everyone knows that the Busch family (not related to the Bush family) are a bunch of drunk-driving rich boys with no respect for law or the people they run over.

Now they have all the money from their deal, and hopefully this final betrayal of their country will cause their beer to drop to the bottom of sales. All another beer company has to do is to say "Still Made in America by Americans."

[WriteDown]

79. Didn't the Busch family.....

Only own about 4% of AB?

*edited for spelling

[tomreedtoon]

90. Don't know about ownership. I just know the Busches were awful.

They were practically Bush-like royalty in St. Louis, with records of drunk driving and other "accidents" quashed. The Midwest version of Dirty Sexy Money.

[MadHound]

62. Amazing how many people are cheering on the ensuing job losses

I'm from Missouri, and yes, Bud is crappy beer. But apparently a lot of people like it, and it has provided many, many jobs for decades now. Now it looks as though some of those jobs will be going away. Also of importance is what will the new owners of the St. Louis Cardinals and Busch Stadium do with the team.

Sorry, but this isn't good news at all.

[AndyTiedye]

72. Why Will Jobs Be Going Away?

Are they going to stop making Budweiser? I doubt it.

[WriteDown]

83. Here you go

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/washington/story/A6DB1073BDE29A818625746F00117D48?OpenDocument

[AndyTiedye]

84. Doesn't Look Good

They shoulda merged with the "Budweiser" in the Czech Republic if they had to sell out.
Those people actually know how to make beer, and they are not known for laying people off.

[crimsonblue]

67. looks like it's local-only beer for me from now on....

I did always like Boulevard and FreeState beers anyway, but this is the last straw. I wonder how many thousands of AB employees and distributors will lose their jobs.

[montanto]

74. Will it make Bud better? or Stella and Bass worse??

[alfredo]

78. Diese Bud's für Sie

Couldn't find the flemish translation, so German had to do.

[daleo]

91. InBev is a tough management culture

I have a niece that works as a production manager at a plant that was taken over by InBev. They are a tough bunch to work for.

[pinniped]

95. If they hurry, Busch Stadium could be renamed InBev Stadium before the 2009 All-Star Game.

Hooray!

[Buns_of_Fire]

96. I'm still a "Milwaukee's Best Light" man, myself.

Unless it's for breakfast, where I'll usually have a Guinness Extra Stout. :beer: