Here Comes the King of Beers
July 15, 2008 by Jean Mercedes
Filed under Business
As Chris noted yesterday, Anheuser-Busch has accepted a takeover bid from InBev, a Belgium-Brazilian brewing conglomerate. The new company will be called “Anheuser-Busch InBev” and August Busch IV will have a seat on the board of directors.
A lot of people were against the take-over. “Loss of an American icon”, “Bud is now Belgium”, “Foreign Owners”.
Fears of globalization run deep.
But what exactly is expected to change at Anheuser-Busch?
* The products will remain the same.
* Shareholders these days are international anyway, so that stays the same. The Busch family, btw, only owns 4% of the current Anheuser-Busch.
* The CEO will change, but would you rather have a fourth generation playboy with a weak track record or an experienced global manager running a company? Nepotism just doesn’t work in business.
* Even the large marketing budget is expected to stay the same.
* The new cost-cutting plan, expected to cut about 1200 jobs, was developed already by the current Anheuser-Busch team; so that also will not change. All 12 American breweries will remain in operation.
On the other hand, the InBev deal will provide the King of Beers access to new markets. Bud is expected to be quite popular in Asia. Here comes the King!
At the end of the day, I believe that the deal will be a good thing for Anheuser-Busch. The alternative – staying “independent” – proved to be unsuccessful in the past 10 years and would have led to tough times at the company.
What do you think? Is Bud no longer an American beer in your mind? Will you change your buying habits because of the deal?
Image from safety.fhwa.dot.gov
Reference: www.iht.com, Article by Mark Landler, July 15, 2008.
Jean,
You may be a raving fan of globalization, but not all of us believe it’s as good as you make it out to be. Cutting right to the bottom line, most of the people who are against this deal (and that includes me) simply don’t trust foreign ownership.
I fundamentally don’t trust non-Americans and honestly believe InBev to be a company of little moral character, Carlos Brito to be a man of great business acumen but poor honesty, and think most Europeans are beneath contempt. Of course, that’s just my view – and it’s perfectly fine if you don’t share it.
Just don’t expect me to help Carlos&Co in their trek by buying anything from A-B InBev. It ain’t gonna happen.
Given the large number of companies owned by “non-Americans,” it must be a pretty scary world for STLtoDFW, and it must be awfully difficult to buy things. After all, it’s pretty late in the game to be buying all-American, since there’s not a whole lot manufactured in this country any more.