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- FUR10N, on 07/14/2008, -13/+224I like how you rounded the number in the title up by 90 million dollars.
- DannyDriffs, on 08/25/2008, -5/+213This Bud is for EU
- artifishall, on 07/14/2008, -11/+154now if only it tasted like a Belgian beer
- Burento, on 07/14/2008, -2/+132Hah.. yeah well.. what's 90 mil amongst friends...
- Miyazaki, on 07/14/2008, -18/+113"American Beer is a lot like making love on a canoe - it's ***** close to water.."
~ I think Eric Idle
Also, micro brews should not count. - diemunkiesdie, on 07/14/2008, -0/+83For those who have not registered on nytimes.com here is the article:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc (NYSE:BUD) has agreed to be acquired by rival InBev NV for $49.91 billion in a deal that will create the world's largest brewer, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.
Belgium-based InBev plans to pay $70 per share for Anheuser, the No. 1 U.S. brewer, the Journal said. It sweetened its original bid of $65 per share after the maker of Budweiser rejected it in favor of its own cost-cutting plan.
Also, I have put the original article from the Wall Street Journal below. Check the first comment since I don't want to take up all the space on this page! - farsonic, on 07/14/2008, -4/+72Great, now Belgians make the best beer in the world and the worst!
- diemunkiesdie, on 07/14/2008, -0/+61Anheuser Agrees to InBev Deal
By DAVID KESMODEL, DENNIS K. BERMAN and DANA CIMILLUCA
July 13, 2008 9:14 p.m.
Anheuser-Busch Cos. agreed to be acquired Sunday by InBev NV for about $52 billion, creating the world's largest beer maker and placing an iconic American company in the hands of a Belgian-Brazilian giant.
The $70-a-share deal marks an abrupt end to what many expected to be a prolonged takeover drama. For weeks, Anheuser showed stiff resistance to a sale. But last week, InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, drew its St. Louis rival into friendly discussions by increasing its offer by $5 a share.
The companies plan to call the new brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev. Anheuser would have two seats on the board, people familiar with the matter said.
The deal, subject to shareholder approvals, would cap Anheuser's roughly 150 years of independence and create a global juggernaut. The new company would have net sales of about $36 billion a year, followed by London's SABMiller PLC. The two giants hawk about 300 brands, including Anheuser's Budweiser and Bud Light and InBev's Stella Artois and Beck's.
The agreement is evidence that even though the global mergers-and-acquisitions market has slowed dramatically as a result of the credit crunch, the appetite of many corporations for takeovers is still strong. It also shows that banks, in spite of the losses they've suffered on risky debt they took on in recent years, are still willing to open their checkbooks to help fund combinations of strong companies.
The tie-up carries significant risks for InBev. Most of Anheuser's profits come from the U.S market, which is growing at a slow clip. Mass-market brewers face rising competition in the U.S. from small-batch "craft" beers, wines and spirits.
InBev and Anheuser also don't overlap much across the globe, so cost cuts from combining staffing and brewing operations may be harder to achieve than in other major beer-industry deals.
A deal with InBev would close the book on an American corporate dynasty. Anheuser and its predecessor companies have been led by members of the Anheuser or Busch families for most of the last 156 years.
Anheuser Chief Executive August Busch IV told beer distributors in April, before a formal bid materialized, that a sale wouldn't happen "on my watch." But the Busch family owns a small fraction of the company's stock and Anheuser's directors were sensitive to their duty to do what's best for its public shareholders. Mr. Busch IV met with InBev CEO Carlos Brito in New York on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Anheuser had few options to evade InBev. It approached its Mexican partner, Grupo Modelo SA, about buying the half of the brewer it doesn't already own, a move which might have made the U.S. brewer too expensive for InBev. But those talks fell through, say people familiar with the matter.
On June 26, Anheuser's board formally rejected InBev's original proposal of $65 a share in cash, saying it substantially undervalued the dominant U.S. beer maker. However, the board indicated it would be open to a higher price.
The takeover battle grew increasingly hostile. Last week, InBev began trying to sack Anheuser's board. Meanwhile, Anheuser sued InBev, accusing it of lying about its lending commitments.
The sale price marks a significant premium to where Anheuser shares traded before speculation of a deal emerged earlier this year. Anheuser shares had languished around $50 a share for about five years. Before the rumors surfaced this spring, the stock's previous high was $54.97 in October 2002. - publiclurker, on 07/14/2008, -1/+58The debt!
- queestaesto, on 07/14/2008, -6/+57Is there anything American, still owned by Americans?
- ArchivalQuality, on 07/14/2008, -8/+52Good God. It's going to be ten pages of people going "hurr Budweiser tastes like water am I rite guyz"
- DLRULZ, on 07/14/2008, -11/+55There is going to be a backlash by Americans, I'm sure the new company Anheuser-Bush InBev is going to be boycotted by a number of people in the U.S.
- Ace75, on 07/14/2008, -5/+46Growing up in St. Louis, this is certainly sad news. Regardless of the fact that the US creates plenty of other much better beers, Budweiser was the best of American beer (style) to many people around the world. Not only did the Anheuser-Busch beer represent America, but also our culture through the brand/marketing campaigns (bud bowl, clydesdales, wassup, this buds for you, inventor guy, busch stadium/cardinals baseball, etc.).
Anyway, it sucks for us to lose sole ownership of one of our historic institutions that is so uniquely American. This is yet another reminder that globalization (across the board) seems inevitable. :(
InBev, you're still not getting my Bud Light! - gregmo, on 07/14/2008, -1/+41oh the irony
- derning, on 07/14/2008, -0/+38Look guys. A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
- EtherGnat, on 07/14/2008, -1/+36* Today's math provided by Verizon
- weech, on 07/14/2008, -4/+37uh it's only two thousandths of a percent
- Samadhi007, on 07/14/2008, -0/+32That was one of the things that Anheuser-Busch held over Miller Brewery was that Miller was owned by a foreign company while Anheuser-Busch was still American owned and operated. I wonder how this is going to affect their marketing and branding...
- gemini8200, on 07/14/2008, -1/+33Yet another entry on the "Companies I Should've Bought Stock In" sheet..
- L0cKe, on 05/09/2009, -1/+32What beer could be more American than Sam Adams Beer? Plus it isn't skunky and watery.
- jakobmakob, on 07/14/2008, -3/+3249.91 billion dollars is $49,910,000,000
50.00 billion dollars is $50,000,000,000
$50,000,000,000 - $49,910,000,000 = $90,000,000 - Skelus, on 07/14/2008, -6/+34I live in James City County in Virginia where Anheuser-Busch is a big player in the local economy. Needless to say, we are extremely concerned about what this means for us...
Busch Brewery
• 872 employees
• $84 million brewery payroll
Busch Gardens Europe and Water Country USA
• 200 full-time employees
• 6,400 total employees during peak season
Tax impact
Property taxes Busch paid to James City County in 2001: $6.7 million
info from: http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/williamsburg/ ... - richmomz, on 07/14/2008, -17/+44The auctioning off of America continues. Last week we sold the Chrysler building, and now we've lost our beer?!?! Good God!
- jwillis11, on 07/14/2008, -5/+32This whole thing reaches so far into so many communities. It's just sad. It's not about the beer. Sure, I love beer, but my emotions are tied to the jobs in towns all across this country, especially here in St. Louis, that will certainly be lost. I'm upset to think about what's going to happen to all of the other properties AB owns or has ties to like Busch Stadium, Busch Gardens, Sea World, Grant's Farm, Bevo Mill, etc. AB is a HUGE part of the community here in St. Louis. Sea World has a major impact on marine conservation outside of their parks. Many of you don't think you'll be impacted because you don't drink AB products. There will be secondary changes related to this buyout, though, that will cause pain far beyond what I think some of us realize now.
- GorfTron, on 07/14/2008, -1/+27And a bunch of Teamsters yelling "They teeeeerkkk maaaahhh juuurrrbb!!!"
- darkbob87, on 07/14/2008, -7/+33Sam Adams FTW!!!!
- mclumber1, on 07/14/2008, -4/+29My friend who works for A-B always touted the fact that he worked for the last large American owned brewery. That no longer being the case, I'm sure he (and many of his co-workers) are upset.
- Nysul, on 07/14/2008, -1/+25Isn't Sam Adams American owned and relatively large? I know they try to look like a micro brew, but you can find their beer in pretty much any drug/grocery store.
- BigJigger, on 07/14/2008, -1/+24You're talking percentages... so multiply by 100. It's 2 tenths of a percent.
- stevenhatfield, on 07/14/2008, -1/+23A friend of mine lived in Germany for 9 years (contracting for the Army or something like that, working on Satellites), then returned to America. After our first night out, after drinking a Budweiser, he said "German water is better than this."
- inactive, on 07/14/2008, -0/+21miller is not owned by an american company either, and people aren't boycotting them.
- NightOwl4, on 07/14/2008, -12/+33I am proud drinker of our very own AMERICAN beer, Blue Moon....thank you Coors!
- 9bpm9, on 07/14/2008, -2/+23Yup, it's been a big deal in St. Louis lately.
- inactive, on 07/14/2008, -13/+34Mmmm beer.
- ahoy, on 07/14/2008, -8/+28I'm a PBR man anyways... when it comes to regular ***** beers.
- digid, on 07/14/2008, -1/+18"Cranberry Juice?! Whaddya on? Yer Period?"
- freeth1nker, on 07/14/2008, -0/+15Today we salute you, Mr. Courteous Digg Commenter.
- inactive, on 07/14/2008, -0/+13We've kept the defense contractors. Everything else we sold. As long as we stay good at killing people we can steal their beer.
- ShakeWell, on 07/14/2008, -2/+15ain't diggin' yourself out of this one, bub
- mousky, on 07/14/2008, -1/+14And America does "business" with China and Pakistan, two outstanding examples of democracy in action.
- modix, on 07/14/2008, -4/+17At least we can blame Bud Light on some other country now.
- Absinthminded64, on 07/14/2008, -0/+13At $5.75 for a six pack that's 16.65M six packs, 8.8M gallons, or 13.33 Olympic sized swimming pools.
But you're right. I probably can't imagine all that all by myself. - Branchex, on 07/14/2008, -4/+17This should work as well as the Daimler Chrysler merger.
- nstlgc, on 07/14/2008, -0/+12The funny thing is -- in Belgium, we complain because too much of our stuff is now owned by Americans. Maybe we should switch countries.
- LeRenard, on 07/14/2008, -1/+13What has the US bought over there?
- rancemo, on 07/14/2008, -4/+16Maybe they'll stop making beer from rice.
- inactive, on 07/14/2008, -15/+27Hahahah, Americans boycotting beer. That's like a fatty boycotting food.
- pamon, on 07/14/2008, -3/+15$50 billion buys a hell of a lot budweiser 6 packs. Another american company down the drain.
- Mothrog, on 07/14/2008, -7/+18We lost American beer during Prohibition. The lightly flavored alcoholic piss water that AB calls beer is hardly beer.
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