Furriners Buy Bud!

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Posted on Jul 13, 2008

For $52 billion, Belgian beer giant InBev will gain control of Anheuser-Busch, the mighty producer of Bud Lite and Budweiser, America’s #1- and #2-selling beers, respectively. In one swoop, the Euro brewery secures half the U.S. market.

Bloomberg News:

The combined company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev, and both companies’ boards of directors have approved the deal unanimously.

The takeover of Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis would be the second-biggest acquisition of a consumer-goods company and ends a month of court fights and public disputes over the future of the 156-year-old maker of Budweiser.

St. Louis would become the headquarters for the North American region and the global home of the flagship Budweiser brand. About 40% of the combined company’s revenue would be generated in the U.S. Anheuser-Busch would become a subsidiary of InBev.

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By rowdy, July 14, 2008 at 10:08 pm Link to this comment

i don’t drink beer. i drink cheap, made in a red state usa, home brewed vodka. a real commie drink. this usa made cheapo tastes as good to me as those pussy overpriced imports do. i used to work at the local busch brewery, but even then i didn’t drink their products.

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By thebeerdoctor, July 14, 2008 at 10:03 pm Link to this comment

Consolidation has been part of the brewing business for decades. This just happens to be the biggest consolidation of them all.

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By purplewolf, July 14, 2008 at 8:52 pm Link to this comment

HEY! ISN’T THIS THE BREWEWRY THAT IS OWNED BY CINDY MCCAIN’S FAMILY AND HERSELF?  AND SHE CLAIMS SHE ONLY MADE 6 MILLION DOLLARS LAST YEAR BETWEEN HER BREWERY AND THE REAL ESTATE COMPANIES SHE OWNS. GUESS SHE CAN’T ADD, JUST LIKE BUSH CAN’T READ.

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By Jim Yell, July 14, 2008 at 3:53 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Maybe no one will buy Bud anymore and we can buy the brewery back at discounted price.

There is a real problem here, more money funneled out of the country. Congress and the President could stop the bleeding of American jobs and money overseas, but they are too busy stuffing their portfolios with the unearned cash that comes with hostile corporate take overs.

See how long the jobs stay in the country too? Still I agree that corporate beer is not very good and when I drink beer I drink from a microbrewery.

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By Leefeller, July 14, 2008 at 3:33 pm Link to this comment

As the saying goes, “beer didn’t make Bud wiser” I find it amusing a European beer company would buy an American beer company.  This must all be part of the trickle down theory.  For what it is worth I have not had a Budweiser for eons.  They shoved Bud and some other American beers down our throats when I was in Vietnam, they tasted like piss, especially after they sat on the flight line for weeks, I learned to like San Miguel when we could get it back then. Far as I am concerned Bud still tastes the same.

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By thebeerdoctor, July 14, 2008 at 2:55 pm Link to this comment

samosamo, St. Pauli is a part pf the InBev portfolio.I maybe a naive idiot when it comes to politics, but hey this is one area that is my job! Peace.

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By samosamo, July 14, 2008 at 8:50 am Link to this comment

Bud used to be my beer of choice but the headaches came to often. As a matter of fact most american brewed beer is less preferrable to foreign beer for me so good riddance bud, I just wish I had the money to buy some stock but that’s life I thing I will go drink a St. Pauli girl.

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By rage, July 14, 2008 at 7:52 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

InBev got Bud cheap. Real CHEAP!!! The dollar is worth, what, approximately 25 Skittles these days? InBev caught a real deal in Saint Louis. The sad news is that Bud is but one among the first to be picked off. Before long, we’ll be foreclosed on by those who own our national debt. And, the scraps will be sold off to global corporations for Reese’s Pieces on the Skittles.

Hellovajob, Chimperor! You too, Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Bernanke! Hellovajob, all, Administration 43!

We gang-raped American’s now circling the sixth of the nine desolately treacherous rings that spiral directly into the brimstone spewing, molten mouth of raging infernal hell don’t how to begin to thank you geniuses for this particular economic abomination! Give us moment, though! I’m certain we can come up with something!

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By GW=MCHammered, July 14, 2008 at 7:26 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Damn. Why couldn’t Bitburger gulp up Anheuser-Busch? Love that beer. It’s a new food group!

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By thebeerdoctor, July 14, 2008 at 7:15 am Link to this comment

I recently have been reading Ambitious Brew: the story of American Beer by Maureen Ogle. A tremendous work on the subject that helps put all of this into true historical perspective. As far as the takeover is concerned, $65 a share wasn’t enough, $70 just right, unanimously approved by the boards of both companies. Despite its recent claim as The Great American Lager, the board at Anheuser-Busch decided to go green.
http://beerdoctor.wordpress.com

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By Jim Yell, July 14, 2008 at 6:57 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Hostile takeovers would be less likely if business were actually taxed properly and made to pay their obligations to society. A monopoly might bring temporary lower prices, but ultimately as their profit margins remain the same over time they will look for ways to cut production cost, although in practicle terms that leads to something covered by the old saying, “don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg”, but greed is infantile and the people in control in this type of economy are not invested in their corporations, except to use them like checkers for their inflated egos and greed. No good can come of this and no good has ever come of this in the long term. We will wake up to find ourselves caught by the short and curlies, our lives pre-empted by monopolies of greed and irresponsiblity. There is a bigger picture out there than the greed of these manipulators. This process should have been stopped a long time ago. Kill the future so a few can have temporary absolute control, over everything. We learned nothing from the fraud of 1929.

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By Reality Check, July 14, 2008 at 3:48 am Link to this comment
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It is not enough that the modern robber barons shipped all our jobs overseas.  Now they are selling off America piece by peice to the Europeans and the Chinese at bargain basement prices.  How can America remain strong and economically sound, when we must buy everything from some one else and have nothing to offer in trade?  The great experiment is coming to an end.  Greed is its downfall.

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By Jason, July 14, 2008 at 2:42 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Don’t sell I guess these are the last days drinking buds I’ll never buy buds agains back to canadian beers!!!!!!

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By yabbi, July 14, 2008 at 1:48 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Sell all of America out, you greedy bastards! Who needs a country anymore? We have the Internet.

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