Anheuser Agrees to InBev Deal »
Posted By Emmanuel70 11 months, 3 weeks ago in Business & FinanceAnheuser-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.
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capn_caveman11 months, 3 weeks ago
Honestly, I can understand why this happened. When it comes down to it - it's all about the $$$.
But at this point it's hard for me to grasp. Budweiser is American beer and always has been. To be honest, I feel kind of 'icky' about this. The same way I would feel if my favorite baseball team sold out to a foreign company.
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gamahuche11 months, 3 weeks ago
Your first two sentences are both uncontroversial and right on the money.. After that you go astray!
The name Budweiser comes from the Czech lands; Budweis is the German name for Ceske Budejovice, a town which has, you guessed it a long and proud tradition of brewing - though not nearly as long as many other towns in the Czech lands.
For the last 15 years or so AB has desperately been trying to gain control of one of the largest breweries in the Czech lands, which manufactures a beer called Budvar in Czech,Budweiser in German, in light and dark variants and with some extra-strong beers and non-alcoholic variants thrown in. Their efforts have been thwarted - and are further confused anyway because there is a second less-known but older brewery in the town which also uses the Budweiser name.
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mark-stevens11 months, 3 weeks ago
The Budweiser name was stolen from a European brewery. The Americam Budweiser can't be sold in certain parts of Europe.
I quit drinking beer years ago, our local breweries got bought out and went to hell in taste.
Busch sells twice as many barrels as its nearest competitor the Miller Brewery... so much for American's taste
caverman... "The same way I would feel if my favorite baseball team sold out to a foreign company."
The Seattle Mariners are owned by Nintendo, a very Japanese company!
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jumpmaster11 months, 3 weeks ago
"When it comes down to it - it's all about the $$$"
And all this time I thought AB was doing this as a hobby.
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ecotourusa11 months, 3 weeks ago
My favorite American beer is Yeungling. It's affordable and a perfect amber beer. Try it...you'll love it. and, it's the oldest American Beer!
see you bye, Bud!
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birddog54Comment removed: User banned.12 Replies
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hyperbola11 months, 3 weeks ago
Actually it means the end of a jewish mobster organization that sprang up during prohibition and of which Cindy McCain is the heiress.
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nostalgia11 months, 3 weeks ago
"InBev's corporate culture is focused heavily on cost controls"
I think we all know what this means
Unions offer grim reports on InBev
Union leaders representing InBev workers in Brazil, Canada and Europe have a simple message for Anheuser-Busch employees if InBev takes control of the St. Louis-based brewery: Watch out.
"They should worry, because the production is going to be concentrated and the work force reduced," says Siderlei Oliveira, president of Brazil's 1.2 million-member food workers union, citing a reduction in Brazil's brewery workers to 13,000 from 23,000 since the 1990s. "This is the strategy that they have."
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.n...
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nostalgia11 months, 3 weeks ago
This was also reported:
"Shareholders also should be aware that InBev, through a subsidiary, has a significant partnership with the government of Cuba to produce and distribute products in Cuba. InBev has not commented on how that would impact business with Anheuserâ;;Busch's customers, nor on its ability to complete an acquisition under U.S. laws that affect acquisitions of U.S. companies by foreign companies."
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/th...
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nikkibabe11 months, 3 weeks ago
Honestly, the whole world does not hate Cuba like USA. Canada has booming business with Cuba and so does lot of other countries around the world. If they don't have capitalism it does not mean the country is bad.
Talking about capitalism, if someone looks at the way US is going downhill, well, they can live without it.
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newbie042011 months, 3 weeks ago
Are they gonna rename Busch stadium?
One of my favorite American brewed beers is Fat Tire, first had it in Colorado many years ago and it finally made it's way to Chicago a few years ago.
Also there's a brewer not too far from me called Three Floyds, pretty good stuff there and also at Flossmore brewery.
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chevydog11 months, 3 weeks ago
Think they'll stay around at least as a marketing tool. Labatt still has its Belgians.
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ConquerorWyrm11 months, 3 weeks ago
the Clydesdales will be okay...they're needed to produce what Anheuser calls 'beer'
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jimdoze11 months, 3 weeks ago
Considering the new owners, wouldn't it be more appropriate for the Clydesdale to be replaced with some good, solid Belgians.
http://www.thebige.com/horseshow/draft/hs_draft...
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Hobe11 months, 3 weeks ago
Anheuser Agrees to InBev Deal
John and Cindy should be quite happy, they are even more weathy than one could ever imagin....
Cindy Budwiser and the ketchup lady hinze Kerry have landed trophy Senator Husband's.
Both kerry and McCain are lifer do-nothing senator's in washington....
After all their years in washington, NOW they want to correct all the Garbage they created....
Vote the Lifers out of office, they are OWNED by Special Intrest and do very well financially at the expense of Hard working American taxpayer's...
Stop the corruption, vote them out....
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chevydog11 months, 3 weeks ago
Usually you're correct. But I haven't seen much about what execs are going to be paid to go away. I rather suspect that there won't be many of these. The beer market has been a tough one for a while; but AB has done better than most large brewers. Their flat profitability can be laid more at the market's feet than their overstaffing or overpaying. But new owners don't always think logically about this stuff.
Think that where jobs may be at risk is in the smaller regional breweries; and perhaps AB's entertainment ventures. AB in 10 years will be different than it is now.
Remember that the number of large breweries and brewing companies have been declining for a long time. The craft brewers held up the numbers end; but their capacity is by definition small. This is just the most recent step in something that's been happening for a while.
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ConquerorWyrm11 months, 3 weeks ago
I long ago stopped purchasing anything by Anheuser Busch...long ago when I heard just how much this company spends to ensure that cannabis remains illegal so as to not interfere with their market share.
Sad and sick, really...
Some simple numbers:
rough number of deaths attributed to alcohol each year = 85000
rough percentage of alcohol sales which is beer = 55%
market share of Anheuser Busch in beer sales = 48.2%
Therefor, roughly 22440 people each year are murdered by Anheuser Busch and their products.
Number of deaths attributed to cannabis (ever!) = 0
Anheuser Busch gets none of my money, ever...
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ConquerorWyrm11 months, 3 weeks ago
As for who does get my beer money...Sam Adams...good stuff...
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joey-evans11 months, 3 weeks ago
There are a good number of small places in the U.S. that make and distribute fantastic tasting beer....places like Avery out of Colorado, Bear Republic out of Cali, Rogue out of Oregon and many others....much better than the mass produced swill that is promoted everywhere you turn. There are quite a few more outstanding imports such as Chimay, Duvel and St. Bernardus from Belgium to name a couple and don't forget the many great German made beers now available. Also England has quite a few of their own to be proud of such as Samuel Smith and Young's. Unfortunately, most people haven't heard of these and when given the opportunity to taste some of them are turned off because they are so used to the commercial crap they usually drink. Oh, and I agree with whoever said Samuel Adams, they make a wonderful lineup and it is what I usually order when I find myself in a place that doesn't have better.
JOEY EVANS
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hyperbola11 months, 3 weeks ago
Get used to it. Since Bush became president the dollar has fallen by 65% relative to the Euro. American companies now look cheap to Europeans.
Apart from that, if Americans really believe in globalization, then in the end the percentage of companies in America that are owned by Americans should be about the same as our percentage of global business - 20%.
When a Chinese oil company can drill off of the American coast, then we will have full globalization.
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hyperbola11 months, 3 weeks ago
Get used to it. Since Bush became president the dollar has fallen by 65% relative to the Euro. American companies now look cheap to Europeans.
Apart from that, if Americans really believe in globalization, then in the end the percentage of companies in America that are owned by Americans should be about the same as our percentage of global business - 20%.
When a Chinese oil company can drill off of the American coast, then we will have full globalization.
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hefaa111 months, 3 weeks ago
Best of the best, Sierra Nevada Ales and Beers., beats em' all. Brewed in Chico (home) in Northern California. However, Sierra Nevada is considered a Micro-brewery with limited product distribution. Budweiser is post consumption beer(a.k.a. urine) compared to SN.
Let the giant corporate breweries that brew pi$$ leave. I will do my part to help the quality, hometown micro-breweries take up the slack.
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joey-evans11 months, 3 weeks ago
Actually, Sierra Nevada was the first micro brew...as you stated it is a very good one...little did they realize the craze they would be starting when they first opened.
JOEY EVANS
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Natureboy11 months, 3 weeks ago
Apart from its being a symptom of all things american being up on the auction block, it's hard for me to feel bad about this - I mean, really, isn't it a lot like Chrysler being bought out by Toyota or even Porche? Things can only get better.
But still, I have a mental image of Joe Six-pack taking a big glug of the new Bud and spitting it out, crying in rage and indignation "Dammit, these stinking Belgians put beer in my p!ss-colored water!"
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hefaa111 months, 3 weeks ago
Joey Evans
I live about 1/4 mile from the Sierra Nevada brewery. Kenny Grossmen, the guy who started the S/N brewery owned a small home-brew-your-own-beer shop in downtown Chico in the early eighties. Nice guy, however his custom built home is/was right in the path of the recent Concow/Paradise fires in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Firefighters almost have the fires under control though we still don't know the full extent of the damage. I wrote "is/was" cuz Ken's house may or may not still exist.
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