The deal's done. InBev now owns Anheuser-Busch, and the new company is called Anheuser-Busch InBev. Not a lot to say that hasn't already been said... So long Sesame Place, no more laughs about Big Bird and Bud Light. Wonder if Busch Gardens in Williamsburg will go as well? (Sorry, got some questions about this: Sesame Place won't be closing, but ABIB will almost certainly be selling it off for cash; they'll probably sell off every non-brewing asset they can.) More to the point...whither Michelob, Budweiser American Ale, and all the craft brewer investments -- Craft Brewers Alliance, Coastal, etc.? This company bit off a lot for this merger: they're gonna have to come up with cash -- from selling assets -- and savings -- from cutting costs. This meeting of corporate cultures is going to be the Clash of the Titans. Buckle up, kids.
24 comments:
deal is done but they still have to get thier rights issue off in a very tough environment. Not the best time to try to place 9.5bn. I bet hey get hung up and take a ratings hit.
Hey JP, aren't you the same guy that hustled Lew for a case of samuel adams on that stock bet?
Anyway, A-B is pretty much done as far as beer brewing goes, they need to do something drastic to improve their product, like switch to crystilled water.
Buckle up? Nah, this will be like watching an alternative (even Bizarro) world running parallel to the one I drink in.
I liked the American Ale, that's about the only AB product I've had recently. I figured with all the hype about it I should give it a chance and really, its decent. Otherwise, no love lost here for AB...sure its an American institution and all that. I'm sure the Bud will keep flowing.
Rich, we used to have MANY american institutions but Bud is responsbile in part for putting them (and their jobs) away. Even better, we used to have many regional american institutions, back before the days of the homogenized america, where every town is the same.
Good riddance to bud
They could've just said, "Resistance is futile. You have been assimilated.", or, "All ur Bud r belong to us."
"All ur Bud r belong to us."
Damn! Why didn't I think of that?! Brilliant!
I believe this means that Boston Beer is the largest American owned brewery now. Got to love that it is a craft brewer.
Bud Light still rules the roost in America and that ain't goin nowhere. As much as we love a hoppy pale ale, most American beer drinkers would spit out Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale.
Like the rest of America, we are pretty much screwed in the financial market and all of our decent businesses with their horrible business models will be bought up by foreign entities. In addition to the Big 3 automakers going bye-bye, we're gonna see the Brazilians buy out Lew Bryson himself.
could drive a man to drinkin'. Which I guess brings us full circle.
I am for sale, but you'd have to be a Brazillionaire to afford me.
agreed I do not think you will see much change in the short term in the states I think the real story with this merger is Asia
With all due respect to Jim Koch, but 83% of Sam Adams is owned by Institutional & Mutual Fund groups of which Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd is one of the larger groups. In todays real world any publicly traded company probably has a fair amount of foreign owners. To say Sam Adams is the largest American owned brewery is a little off target.
OTOH, Jim Koch does own a majority of the voting stock in Boston Beer...so it's a mixed bag. American-owned? Maybe not. American-controlled? Yup.
Which is why I keep putting forward Yuengling. They were a very close second to Boston Beer in production last year, and they're not just 100% American-owned, they're 100% Dick Yuengling-owned. Period.
Oh, and Alex... tried to hustle. I never took that bet, didn't sound like a good one to me.
But what's up with Sesame Place. :)
I walk by the Bud American Ale display in the store, and I've read about it, the price is right, but even if it were half that, I somehow move on to buy what I know is an "authentic" American craft brew. That means Sam Adams = yes, Blue Moon = no. Every dollar spent on the bigs, or a brand owned or controlled by the bigs, is a vote for the bad old days of many brands, but one pale fizzy lager. Your choice.
Lew is smart enough not to take that bet. Stocks in general are selling off big time over the next year rising tides raise all ships and its inverse apply to Boston brewing. The interesting bet....would be to wager that Boston Brewing outperforms/underperforms small cap stocks over the next year. I am not sure I would take the other side of that bet either. I mean I am not a buyer of Boston brewing, but I am surely not a buyer of any stocks right now. I bet Boston beats average small cap food and beverage name sin this market. I am a huge buyer of following names however: East End Black Strap Stout, Dundee Porter, Straub Special Dark, and Steg Porter , and I will surely try to get involved in the Liebotschaner deal.
You really have no idea what you are talking about
Your evaluation, of course, but it might have more weight if you could indicate who you're talking to -- me, JP, thbeer? -- and leave some kind of substantive statement of your own.
Just a suggestion.
Ironic that anonymous says you really have no idea what you are talking about and WE have no idea what HE is talking about.
If he's referring to Lew or JP, he's taking on two heavy hitters, that much I know for sure.
Lew Bryson your stock advice definitely puts a new spin of the town drunk replacing a shoeshine boy in the Kennedy classic:
“When even shoeshine boys are giving you stock tips, it’s time to sell” (Joseph P. Kennedy)
That's pretty funny, except I didn't give any stock advice. Maybe you better lay off the sauce before you hit the blogosphere, fella.
I would amend shoeshine boys to read "street analysts" as they have done such an awsome job destroying quadrillions in value. I'll take a shoeshine boy with real skin in game over some drip ivy league analyst twit any day. Anyway it is still a free country last time I checked.
What, no observations about the Eagle flying the coop and dropping an "e" in Bev to fertilize the next gen beers? They took a great logo and made it less. Can they take debatable beers and make them more?
I doubt that InBev is going to change much with Bud Light. It's the biggest-selling beer in the world and it continues to grow: why mess with it? Bud, maybe. But I don't understand why everyone is asking about how this merger is going to change beers on either side of the transaction. The beers will most likely remain the same.
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