"inbev" news and stories

Talk about a poor choice of words.

Yesterday morning, The Wall Street Journal's online "Deal Journal" ran this story entitled "Disaster Averted: Anheuser-Busch Deal Won't Raise Beer Tabs" discussing InBev's victory in a lawsuit (one of many) that sought to slow or stop the InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch.

Timing-wise however, this report comes on the heals of Anheuser-Busch InBev's major announcement on Monday that the company will lay off about 1,400 employees in the U.S., primarily in the St. Louis area. You think those people feel like disaster was averted?

Come on, Deal Journal. I know sometimes in the fast-paced world of online journalism editorial slips are made, but not only is this headline insensitive, it's not even accurate. "Disaster averted" implies that some proverbial bullet was actively dodged. According to the post, the lawsuit simply posited that the lingering possibility that InBev might build U.S. breweries kept prices low. A judge rejected this unfounded theory, tossing out the lawsuit. That's not averting disaster: That's asserting there was no disaster to begin with.

But regardless, let's keep everything in perspective: Paying a few extra cents for beer is not a disaster. If this economy continues heading in the direction it's going though, we might find out what a disaster really looks like.

[Photo Credit: anheuserbusch.com]

An old friend came into town this Sunday. We kicked off the celebration with a bottle of DeuS and, long story short, I haven't gotten around to blogging until today. Perfect time to catch up on this week's beer happenings with a beer blog round-up.

1. There's been a lot of chatter about the Men's Fitness list of "America's five best bars for beer lovers." In today's beer climate, limiting the list down to just 5 seems impossible, and, with as little offense to Men's Fitness as possible, I'm not sure if they are the magazine to do it.
   
2. The idea of healthy beer has been a headturner as a number of blogs and news sites have been running the story of scientists at Rice University who integrated the anti-aging chemicals from red wine into a new BioBeer. Here's what Discovery had to say about it.
3. Hipsters really seemed to Digg this article on Sloshspot discussing The Evolution of Pabst Blue Ribbon's Beer Advertising. Or you can just drop into Bob & Barbara's on South St. in Philadelphia and see it all firsthand.

After holding firm back in June and turning down a buyout offer, Anheuser-Busch surrendered over the weekend and allowed European brewer InBev to buy them for approximately $52 billion. America's largest beer maker is no longer in American hands, a move that leaves some beer drinkers a bit concerned for their favorite brew (maybe this will convince more people to switch to locally produced small batch brewers. What?! A girl can dream).

The new company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of the terms brokered in the buyout deal. August A. Busch IV, the company's CEO (and descent of one of the brewery's founders) will be given a seat on the board. According to a press release issued by both companies, no US breweries will be closing because of the merger.

[via NYT]

Source

Apparently, the European mega beer company, InBev, really, really, really wants to buy Anheuser-Busch. After being firmly rejected last Thursday, InBev is preparing to make a hostile takeover bid.

The European beer giant is maneuvering either to remove the AB Board of Directors, or to be able to take its proposal straight to the shareholders. Though Ab came up with some cost cutting plans that would save the company more than $1 billion over the next four years and eventually raise share prices, many analysts believe that shareholders would go with cold hard cash now rather than the possible share price increase in the future.

One commenter on the St. Louis Business Journal article raised the concern that InBev isn't likely to spend the money on being environmentally responsible that AB does. That commenter goes on to ask where the environmentalists are. Does anyone have any more information on that aspect of this that they'd like to share?

You knew it had to happen. Late last week, the Anheuser-Busch board of directors politely yet firmly told InBev that they were fine, thanks.

As reported in Beer Advocate, the response to InBev's offer to buy AB at $65 a share was a polite thanks but no thanks. The board if directors for the beer giant said that even though the $65 per share was over current share price, the offer really undervalued the earnings potential of the brand, as well as other assets the company has and plans they've made to make more money . So basically, InBev's offer wasn't enough.

Not that I can blame them. I don't think any company that's doing as well as Anheuser-Busch wants to be taken over. I personally like the decision. I don't like the thought of mega global companies all buying each other up to form one massive corporation, but that's just me. What do you think?