Anheuser-Busch Sold for $50 Billion
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James Joyner | Monday, July 14, 2008 |
Anheuser-Busch agreed to sell to Belgium’s InBev last night, demonstrating that all the howls about American pride were mere haggling over price. All it took was raising the offer to $70 per share from $65 per share — “a 27 percent premium over Anheuser’s record-high stock price in October 2002″ — and giving a Busch a seat on the board.
The combined company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev, said the sources, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. Anheuser will get seats on the new company’s board, the sources said, but it was not immediately clear how many.
Adding another dimension to any deal was Mexico’s No. 1 brewer Grupo Modelo, which is 50 percent owned by Anheuser. The maker of Corona beer, which has the right to choose its partner, has not yet approved InBev for that role and the two brewers remain in talks, according to one person familiar with the situation.
One suspects that hurdle will prove minor; the combined company would easily be the world’s top beer distributor and it would be foolish, indeed, for Modelo to opt out of access to that network. What remains to be seen is whether Missouri politicians or anti-trust forces try to stop this deal.
Previously: Anheuser-Busch $46 Billion Belgian Buyout Bid
Related: No Beer, No Civilization, Beer vs. Wine Vote
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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...is nothing sacred?...next they'll change the Clydesdale horses to Lipizzaner stallions....GAHH!.
It can only be for the best. At the very worst, nothing will change and AB products will continue to suck. With any luck, I mean any luck, the products will improve.
Even a margin improvement would be welcomed.
The Belgians are coming! The Belgians are coming!
If they hide the Clydesdales, where will they get the critical liquid ingredient to make Bud taste the way it does?
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