IN-BEV makes unsolicited bid for Anheiser-Busch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/business/worldbusiness/24beer.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/business/worldbusiness/24beer.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Uh-Oh, Monoply? (A-B Bid by InBev)
- Thread starter HenryHill
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sirsloop
Well-Known Member
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-06-11-bud-inbev_N.htm?csp=34
NEW YORK Anheuser-Busch (BUD), the biggest U.S. brewer and third worldwide by volume, said Wednesday that it received an unsolicited $46.3 billion takeover bid from Belgium-based InBev, No. 2 worldwide.
A-B announced after the U.S. markets' close that it had "received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from InBev to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Anheuser-Busch for $65 per share in cash."
... more in the link...
NEW YORK Anheuser-Busch (BUD), the biggest U.S. brewer and third worldwide by volume, said Wednesday that it received an unsolicited $46.3 billion takeover bid from Belgium-based InBev, No. 2 worldwide.
A-B announced after the U.S. markets' close that it had "received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from InBev to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Anheuser-Busch for $65 per share in cash."
... more in the link...
It's a publicly traded company, so technically it's always "for sale"...the Busch family does not have sufficient control to stop it, and there are no anti-takeover measures (poison pills, etc.) in place. If the shareholders want to sell, it's sold.
Been rumored (and discussed here) for awhile now.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=66869
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=67540
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=705699
Been rumored (and discussed here) for awhile now.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=66869
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=67540
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=705699
BeerAg
Well-Known Member
I think it has the most to do with the terrible shape of the dollar. There is no way InBev could afford a deal like this if the dollar was not so weak.
Bud's brand recognition and distribution know-how are amazingly valuable. If InBev can put Stella on every shelf right next to Bud, and scale up production of Stella without losing the perception of quality, I coudn't see their sales doing anything but skyrocketing.
Bud's brand recognition and distribution know-how are amazingly valuable. If InBev can put Stella on every shelf right next to Bud, and scale up production of Stella without losing the perception of quality, I coudn't see their sales doing anything but skyrocketing.
abracadabra
Well-Known Member
Old news....
Not exactly. The rumor has been around for a while but the offer wasn't made until yesterday.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080611/anheuser_busch_inbev.html?.v=1
My take on it is who cares? Other than the stockholders and all the employees that are going to get laid off.
I can't even drink the majority of their crap. It makes my head feel like it's going to explode.
Then I guess you won't be signing their petition then
http://www.savebudweiser.com/
I was bored one rainy day and made this
(I can't believe I wasted time ACTUALLY doing it, but I couldn't believe that website wasn't all Red White & Blue...)
I'm hoping that this is a case of bad movie physics in that the Giant Ant will collapse under it's own weight.
Bob
Well-Known Member
Not likely to collapse. An interesting proposal.
I remember when South African Breweries took over Miller. Prognostications of gloom and doom were rampant. Not much happened at all.
I remember when Guinness's parent company, Diageo, bought and took over the Stroh/Pabst brewery in Fogelsville, PA. Doom and gloom were predicted. Yeah, they used that plant to 'brew' Smirnoff Ice, but that only lasted a couple of years (long enough for the alco-pop craze to die back), and now that plant is owned by...
Horrors!
...a craft brewer: Boston Beer.
What's my point? Glad you asked. There's room for everyone in this market. One of the important points made in both articles is that sales of A/B's core brands have suffered in recent years against the resurgence of consumers desiring flavor - i.e., wine, import-beer and craft-beer drinkers. Well-run larger craft breweries are expanding - vis., Yuengling's purchase of a large plant in Florida to increase penetration in the Southeast, and the aforementioned Boston Beer purchase.
It's easy to worry when the story is about the merging of two already bloated companies into a mega-colossus. But such a merger isn't going to hurt the market. It's not going to drive craft beer back into Jim Koch's kitchen. It simply means that two gigantic makers of watery blandness get to further increase their economies of scale.
Look at it this way - you can make keggles out of stylish Stella Artois 1/2-bbls, not Bud Light! :fro:
Cheers,
Bob
I remember when South African Breweries took over Miller. Prognostications of gloom and doom were rampant. Not much happened at all.
I remember when Guinness's parent company, Diageo, bought and took over the Stroh/Pabst brewery in Fogelsville, PA. Doom and gloom were predicted. Yeah, they used that plant to 'brew' Smirnoff Ice, but that only lasted a couple of years (long enough for the alco-pop craze to die back), and now that plant is owned by...
Horrors!
...a craft brewer: Boston Beer.
What's my point? Glad you asked.
There's room for everyone in this market. One of the important points made in both articles is that sales of A/B's core brands have suffered in recent years against the resurgence of consumers desiring flavor - i.e., wine, import-beer and craft-beer drinkers. Well-run larger craft breweries are expanding - vis., Yuengling's purchase of a large plant in Florida to increase penetration in the Southeast, and the aforementioned Boston Beer purchase.It's easy to worry when the story is about the merging of two already bloated companies into a mega-colossus. But such a merger isn't going to hurt the market. It's not going to drive craft beer back into Jim Koch's kitchen. It simply means that two gigantic makers of watery blandness get to further increase their economies of scale.
Look at it this way - you can make keggles out of stylish Stella Artois 1/2-bbls, not Bud Light! :fro:
Cheers,
Bob
^^^I tend to agree, but there always is the AOL/Time/Warner, Enron, Worldcomm.
Big companies can implode.
Big companies can implode.
quixotic
Well-Known Member
If this happens, maybe they'll come out with a some Belgian-style beers?
I bet that would be good...
I bet that would be good...
Glibbidy
Well-Known Member
If this happens, maybe they'll come out with a some Belgian-style beers?
I bet that would be good...
Isn't shock top Belgian inspired?
Bob
Well-Known Member
And the fireworks are always entertaining. Can you see Augie Busch learning Walloon?
I tend to think, however, that the international beer industry has a better track record than domestic mega-corps like those listed. SABMiller hasn't imploded, has it? Diageo is a global power built on consolidation, and it hasn't imploded. In fact, historically, government meddling in antitrust had a devastating effect on brewing after Repeal; had consolidation been permitted, it's likely that hundreds of local and smaller regional breweries would have remained open, having been consolidated into umbrella corporations. Instead, forced to operate alone, they couldn't hope to compete with the economies of scale leveraged by companies such as Coors, Miller, and A/B. So we went from having a thousand breweries to less than a hundred in the 1970s.
History aside, here's a crucial part of the USA Today article:
"Last week, the Department of Justice approved a merger of the U.S. operations of SABMiller, the world's largest brewer by volume, and Molson Coors — just three years after Coors and Molson merged. Earlier this year, Heineken and Carlsberg bought Scottish & Newcastle. InBev itself is the result of a merger in 2004 of Belgium's InterBrew and AmBev, South America's largest brewer."
The brewing giants are getting ever bigger, in an effort to broaden their bases and markets, and diversify their operations. You know all that talk about a global economy? Here's global economics at work!
A/B owns Latrobe Brewing which it bought from InBev, and both companies already have a thriving distribution agreement for their brands. If the companies officially merge, it's more like getting married - they're already living together; why not take the step to real commitment?
If nothing else, it'll get InBev's core brands a little better penetration in the US market, and get A/B's core brands even better penetration in the global market. Go to a bar in UK - you'll almost always see Stella and Guinness on tap. A/B must really want a chunk of that, and I don't blame them.
Hell, I'd like to see Stella Artois on tap more often here in the US; I'd rather drink that than Bud!
Bob
Desert_Sky
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wildwest450
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They can have it. I'm done with the commercial crap.
My money goes to the good stuff.
My money goes to the good stuff.
From what I was reading earlier, InBev doesn't really have very much US market share. Their "monopoly" position won't be too much stronger in the U.S. than what BUD already enjoys. We know BUD has tried to bully around distributors in the past, so I'm not saying this is necessarily good - but I wouldn't count on the deal getting shot down on antitrust grounds. We'll have to see, though, there are people who don't want this deal to go down for symbolic reasons.
Evan!
Well-Known Member
You forgot to make a reference to piss and/or fizzy yellow water.
I generally don't bash it. It's not something that I'm bothered about.
I dropped a lot of things from my life and that stuff left over 20 years ago. Not that I ever drank it much. I now just never drink it.
Saying that, I once came out of the dessert and it was a generic lager or coke.
I drank the generic camel piss. (The shame)
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