Anheuser gets $46.3 billion takeover bid from InBev...

[edro]

Originally posted by: Ronstang

Originally posted by: CorCentral

Originally posted by: Ronstang
This is also in P&N so I will post what I did there...
The Belgians make great beer (and guns too...kind of ironic since they don't mix) and Anheuser-Busch makes the crap. This can only be a good thing if they actually change the product....I would actually buy it for a change.

Anheuser Beer selling the best Worldwide and making the most money and you call it crap? Better sell your stock then son!
NUMBNUT!

Most people don't have any taste. Anyone who drinks Budweiser surely doesn't. It is crap beer when you compare it to any beer out there, especially anything from Europe. People buy it because it is cheap and it is something they know.

You are old enough to know that opinions, especially about flavors and taste, are extremely subjective.
50% of the world thinks your favorite beer is crap.
Budweiser is my favorite beer.

 

[spaceman]

budweiser is the hangover beer

two of em and i have a pounding headache the next day.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: CorCentral

Originally posted by: Indolent
They'll never change the recipes of the beers they already make. They could make new, better beers also though.

Coke learned their lesson! Bud is not going to make the same mistake.

If it did happen, the stock of the company would PLUMMET in 1 day!

Yeah, Budweiser is the prefered brand of a lot of people. You'll always get the microbrew snobs that say "ewwww....the top brand is awful", but what can you do?

 

[freegeeks]

I'm Belgian and Bud is not that bad. Heineken is piss

 

[preslove]

People don't buy budweiser because it's cheap (it's relatively expensive), they buy it because they're sheep who believe the marketing, and they don't have taste. Heh, the same with people who buy Heineken.

 

[dabuddha]

:heart: Stella Artois

 

[BurnItDwn]

While I don't "love" Budweiser, I do like it. I am not fond of InBev as a company and I strongly hope this takeover does not go through. (I will be honest and say that I do really like Hoegaarden though)
If this deal does happen, lots of Americans will probably lose their jobs as the company will cut costs in every way possible.

People can bitch and moan all they want about how Budweiser is crap beer, but in reality, it's not all that bad. You can't compare it to IPAs or stouts as they are completely different styles and in completely different classes. Bud should really only be compared to other lagers in the same price range, and when you make that comparison, it turns out it's not bad at all.

That said, I really wish strong ales were more "mainstream" and less expensive. I would love if Ommegang, Allagash, New Glarus, Rogue, Nogne, or Three Floyds beers were in the same price category as Bud

 

[preslove]

As for InBev closing down plants and people losing their jobs, I'm not so sure. I would bet that InBev is hoping to take over Bud's bottling plant capabilities and distribution networks so that they can further expand in America. Why the hell would they purchase a company with all these assets so that they can just ship stuff from Europe? That doesn't make any sense.

Of course they'll continue to make budweiser as it is now, they'll just also produce Stella in America for less, and also distribute it to more stores with lower overhead.

I think this is a win for everyone.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: preslove
As for InBev closing down plants and people losing their jobs, I'm not so sure. I would bet that InBev is hoping to take over Bud's bottling plant capabilities and distribution networks so that they can further expand in America. Why the hell would they purchase a company with all these assets so that they can just ship stuff from Europe? That doesn't make any sense.

Of course they'll continue to make budweiser as it is now, they'll just also produce Stella in America for less, and also distribute it to more stores with lower overhead.

I think this is a win for everyone.

I don't think they would close plants, but I'm pretty sure they would trim the job force every way that they can.

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn

Originally posted by: preslove
As for InBev closing down plants and people losing their jobs, I'm not so sure. I would bet that InBev is hoping to take over Bud's bottling plant capabilities and distribution networks so that they can further expand in America. Why the hell would they purchase a company with all these assets so that they can just ship stuff from Europe? That doesn't make any sense.

Of course they'll continue to make budweiser as it is now, they'll just also produce Stella in America for less, and also distribute it to more stores with lower overhead.

I think this is a win for everyone.

I don't think they would close plants, but I'm pretty sure they would trim the job force every way that they can.

And Anheuser doesn't do that already? The only people I can see really being vulnerable are in management, & hell, they're probably going to be kept around because they know how to run the existing operations. I think this is more just InBev moving into the US, rather than them thinking they can run Anheuser more efficiently.

 

[vi edit]

Interesting. Little known thing many people forget or just don't know is that Miller is owned by a South African company now and isn't a home grown company any more.

Now we may be losing AB.

Sad really.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Indolent

Originally posted by: spidey07
If the family has the majority share I don't really see this happening.

If I correctly remember a previous article I read recently, the Busch family doesn't own much of a percentage of the shares at all.

Anheuser-Busch's biggest shareholders:
Barclays Plc with 43.7 million shares, or 6.1 percent
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. with 35.6 million, or 5 percent.

Directors and executives owned 33.7 million shares, or about 4.5 percent of the company, as of Jan. 31, the brewer said in a March 10 regulatory filing.

Former Chairman August A. Busch III controls a 1.3 percent stake.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Rumor has it that Warren Buffett supports the $65/share offer.

 

[PepePeru]

When i went to seaworld a few years ago, above the urinals on the walls were all sorts of placards attacking SABMiller. Where SAB stands for South African Breweries, so the placards had all sorts 'facts' of how A-B is pro-America / patriotic / AMERICAN BEER FOR AMERICANS! blah blah and how SABMiller is not, b/c their parent company is foreign.

So I find this pretty damn funny if you've seen those signs plastered all around Seaworld (i'm assuming Busch Gardens as well).

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: vi edit
Interesting. Little known thing many people forget or just don't know is that Miller is owned by a South African company now and isn't a home grown company any more.

Now we may be losing AB.

Sad really.

And Coor's is owned by a Canadian company (Molsen, I believe). Busch will probably buy out the rest of Grupo Modelo and hope that that's enough for InBev to back off. Not much else they can do.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Anheuser-Busch Rejects InBev's Hostile Takeover Bid (Update1)
By Duane D. Stanford

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Anheuser-Busch Cos., the U.S. maker of Budweiser beer, rejected InBev NV's $46.3 billion takeover offer three hours after the Belgian brewer made its bid hostile.

The Anheuser-Busch board unanimously agreed that InBev's $65-a-share offer was ``financially inadequate,'' the St. Louis- based brewer said today in a statement.

InBev said earlier today that it plans to ask shareholders to fire Anheuser-Busch's directors. The Leuven, Belgium-based company offered two weeks ago to take over the U.S. beermaker, and today's announcement was the board's first response to the unsolicited proposal.

``We've entered into hostile territory,'' said Tom Pirko, president of the Bevmark LLC consulting firm in Santa Ynez, California. ``InBev is a very aggressive company. They don't take no for an answer.''

Nina Devlin, an InBev spokeswoman who works for Brunswick Group, declined immediate comment.

Anheuser-Busch's rejection may prompt InBev, which makes Bass, Stella Artois and Beck's beer, to raise its bid while it tries to install its own directors. A purchase at the current price would be the biggest of a consumer company since Procter & Gamble Co. bought Gillette Co. for $57 billion in 2005.

Anheuser-Busch rose 65 cents to $62 at 5:35 p.m. after the close of New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Before the board announcement, it had declined 41 cents to $61.35. InBev fell 1.30 euros, or 2.8 percent, to 45 euros in Brussels, tracking declines in U.S. and European stock markets.

Not for Sale
Before InBev's June 11 proposal, Anheuser-Busch Chief Executive Officer August A. Busch IV told the Belgian brewer that his company wasn't for sale and that ``he and his board are 'committed' to remain independent,''' InBev said today in a filing in a Wilmington, Delaware, court.

While Busch, the fifth generation to run the company, told distributors in April that the company wouldn't be sold while he was in charge, the family doesn't own enough shares to sway a shareholder vote on the board. Directors and executives hold 4.5 percent of the company's shares, according to a regulatory filing earlier this year.

InBev sued today to get a ruling that it doesn't have to wait until 2009 to remove the five directors that are up for re- election that year. It said the other eight can be removed now without cause. Changes made in Anheuser-Busch's bylaws in 2006 make it unclear whether the U.S. brewer can block the ouster of all 13 board members.

`Big Missiles'
``This is analogous to starting a war and wheeling out the big missiles,'' said Larry Hamermesh, a professor at Widener University in Wilmington, Delaware, who specializes in corporate law issues.

Anheuser-Busch may announce plans to lower costs and sell off divisions to increase its stock price so it doesn't need to be acquired, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

InBev wrote to Anheuser-Busch for a third time yesterday to request takeover talks, and said it paid lenders $50 million to get financing commitments for its unsolicited offer. The brewer told August Busch IV that the fees have been paid to banks backing the bid.

InBev, which traces its roots to 1366, took its current form in 2004 when Leuven-based Interbrew SA bought Sao Paulo- based Cia. de Bebidas das Americas, or AmBev, in an $11 billion transaction.

Brito's Rise
In less than two years, Interbrew's American CEO was replaced by Brito, a Brazilian groomed by Jorge Paulo Lemann and two other Brazilian bankers who had built AmBev from a brewer they acquired in 1989. Since the merger, InBev's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization as a percentage of sales have increased to 35 percent from 25 percent.

The Belgian company hired Lazard Ltd., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG as financial advisers.

InBev's lenders for the proposed bid are Banco Santander SA, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Fortis, ING Groep NV, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd.

Anheuser-Busch said its advisers are Goldman, Sachs & Co., Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc. and Moelis & Co.

The case is: InBev NV/SA v. Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc., CA3857, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington.)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/...qit4EO2c7IQ&refer=home

Looks like this is gonna get ugly.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Lothar
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/...qit4EO2c7IQ&refer=home

Looks like this is gonna get ugly.

Rally. If you have any shares at all, VOTE. Keep these guys in office because they certainly have their head on straight by refusing.

Does sound like it's gonna get real ugly though.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: vi edit
Interesting. Little known thing many people forget or just don't know is that Miller is owned by a South African company now and isn't a home grown company any more.

Now we may be losing AB.

Sad really.

And Coor's is owned by a Canadian company (Molsen, I believe). Busch will probably buy out the rest of Grupo Modelo and hope that that's enough for InBev to back off. Not much else they can do.

Well, in the US, it is now MillerCoors. SAB and Molsen combined forces in the US.

 

[PimpJuice]

I'm glad I quit working for AB a month ago. I still have many friends there and supposedly there is a meeting tomorrow to talk about becoming leaner and about layoffs, restructuring, etc.....

Theres talk of selling Busch Entertainment (Busch Gardens, etc...)

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Ronstang
This is also in P&N so I will post what I did there...

The Belgians make great beer (and guns too...kind of ironic since they don't mix) and Anheuser-Busch makes the crap. This can only be a good thing if they actually change the product....I would actually buy it for a change.

I meant to look for a thread on AT discussing this when I heard about it...glad it was bumped.

anyhoo...I wanted to post exactly this ^

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: Ronstang

Originally posted by: CorCentral

Originally posted by: Ronstang
This is also in P&N so I will post what I did there...

The Belgians make great beer (and guns too...kind of ironic since they don't mix) and Anheuser-Busch makes the crap. This can only be a good thing if they actually change the product....I would actually buy it for a change.

Anheuser Beer selling the best Worldwide and making the most money and you call it crap? Better sell your stock then son!

NUMBNUT!

Most people don't have any taste. Anyone who drinks Budweiser surely doesn't. It is crap beer when you compare it to any beer out there, especially anything from Europe. People buy it because it is cheap and it is something they know.

I hate it too, but you can't argue with results. "cheap and...something they know" is a winning combo for any company.

yeha, but that's not the argument. of course they'd be stupid to change what sells, but Budweiser is by far one of the crappiest products on the market to hold the title of #1 product in its sector. It's hardly a debate.

by and large, the majority of people have no taste. Budweiser is number one, look at the music industry, Olive Garden exists, etc...

 

[BoomerD]

Oddly enough, if you go to the "BudShop", which is AB's online store, you find these:

http://www.budstore.com/Budsho...etail.aspx?ItemId=1680

http://www.budstore.com/Budsho...etail.aspx?ItemId=1678

http://www.budstore.com/Budsho...etail.aspx?ItemId=1691

plus a few more...