Inbev eats Busch

Jul 16, 2008 by Dan Taylor    10 Comments    Posted under: News

This buds for you….Belgium.

After 156 years of brewing the iconic ‘All-American’ beer, the Busch family finally decided to call it a day and go grab a cold one.  Unfortunately, the cold ones no longer belong to them.  On Sunday, the St. Louis based Anheuser-Busch company agreed to a $7/share buyout by Belgian based Inbev.  At $7/share, the register receipt reads close to $52 Billion.

The sale brings to an end a nasty month long suit and countersuit dispute stemming from a hostile takeover bid from Inbev.  Inbev initially began the proceedings by moving to oust Anheuser-Busch’s board.  In a sudden reversal, when Inbev sweetened the deal from $5 a share to $7, August Busch IV and co. suddenly cleared their schudules to sit down at the table.

Some Anheuser-Busch employees have obvious concerns about job security and analysts say their worry has merit. White collar, middle- and upper-management positions, such as those in accounting, purchasing and human resources, could be cut to avoid duplication and trim expenses in St. Louis, which has been named the North American headquarters for the combined company.

“St. Louis will see some job losses,” said Ilhan Geckil, senior economist in the Chicago office of Anderson Economic Group. “Not brewing, blue-collar jobs. The taste of Budweiser is really important. No breweries will be closed.”

On its website, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents 8,100 of A-B’s 30,000 full-time U.S. workers says it wants “to safeguard the unique legacy of Anheuser-Busch, a proud union company and American icon, built by generations of Teamster workers.” It warns workers that “InBev‘s buyout record in Europe and Canada shows that workers and communities that depend on Anheuser-Busch would suffer from a possible erosion of working conditions and even layoffs.”

The Teamsters union also says that “to recoup the huge purchase price … InBev probably would have to cut Anheuser-Busch’s operations to the bone,” with retiree health care one likely target.

“While the process was at times difficult for all parties, in the end the right result occurred for everyone,” Anheuser-Busch President and CEO August Busch IV said in a conference call. Busch will sit on the combined company’s board in a non-executive role.

Anheuser-Busch holds nearly 49 percent share of U.S. beer sales. It also makes and recycles aluminum cans and operates theme parks. The company last year recorded $2.12 billion in profit on $16.7 billion in revenue.

And now…thoughts on the sale from our good friend Stephen Colbert: