Buffett backs InBev bid, Belgian newspaper says

Hey, who is the Miller distributor here? I’ll bet that guy hasn’t been stopped smiling since this thing was announced. How much do you think his business will increase if this happens? Also, here’s a question, if you own the stock and you don’t support this, at what price would you change your mind? They say every man has his price.

How is that Anti-American? A-B corp is the one selling their shares to InBev. Warren Buffet is just making money from the deal. He benefits either way because A-B comprises of over 40% of the beer market and rising. If they sell he makes money, but if they don’t he still makes money every year because A-B is always growing. As for being ‘un-American” this has nothing to do with that. A-B has 27 brewing and bottling plants, 15 of which are out of the United States. 14 in China and 1 in the U.K. There are over 8,000 employees at the St. Louis plant and a rough guess that about the same are at all 17 means about roughly 135,000 employees. And A-B is being bought out at $47,500,000,000. Now if every employee got an equal share that would mean about 351,851.85 per employee. So it seems A-B is being “Un-American” by not caring about their employees, even though the majority of them are already over seas, by giving them a buy-out option or early retirement. Does August Busch really need all that money? Warren Buffet will be making about $2,275,000,000, 35 million shares at 65$ each, from being a smart business man and investing correctly. August Busch will be receiving easily 10x that amount from being greedy. Now who’s the “Bad Guy”?

this comes across as very hypocritical. When the US Dollar ruled the world, none of us complained with American companies did exactly the same thing to European and Asian Companies. We have stood by and watched our government spend billions, no trillions of dollars in financial aid to other countries and we still stand by with horse blinders (no pun intended to A-B)not doing anything about it. Well, we have an opportunity this year and will get many opportunties to do so in the next few years. Talk is cheap and as the old cliche says, “actions are louder than words”.

Mike–InBev’s offer is $65 cash–not in stock. That’s the reason they have to take on so much debt.

Ben–Berkshire will make about $500-600 million in profit on the stock. It paid $48/share. Also, Berkshire owns more stock than Busch IV…I’m not sure I see where the idea that Busch will make ten times what Berkshire will make comes from.

Ben–I don’t understand where the idea comes from that A-B could pass that money on to its employees. The corporation isn’t receiving any of the buyout money; it is being paid to the shareholders. In most deals, the acquirer comes in and offers selected employees retention packages to stay on with after the acquisition occurs. If there is a business reason to compensate employees as a result of the merger, InBev will do it.

VW–It isn’t Buffett’s money invested in A-B; it’s the money of the shareholders that he invested in Berkshire. Last time I checked, most investors in Berkshire would probably vote for profit as their “American Story.” I don’t think they care for any reeducation.

My own opinion is that the Busch Family doesn’t want to sell out, but they have no alternative they can offer to their shareholders that equals the value of the $65 bid in their eyes.

The Board of A-B really has no choice but to accept this deal. Turning down the deal would send a signal to the market is that the management and the board do not care about maximizing shareholder value. A fight would then occur between shareholders and management. The end result would be a new board of directors who then would accept the deal anyway. I think A-B’s days are numbered.

I’d imagine A-B is a $40-45 stock if they turn down the InBev offer.

THIS GETS ATTENTION BUT LOOK AT THE MONEY HALLIBUTRON IS MAKING OFF OF THIS WAR !! I TRUST BUFFET WAY MORE THAN BUSH AND HIS CROOKED ADMINISTRATION !

If Mr. Buffett wants a taste of his own medicine maybe all Americans in the great city of St.Louis should change their auto and home owners insurance from GEICO (which is wholly owned by Warren Buffett), to a insurance company that “really” believes in America like maybe AlState or Metlife or Safeco. Hey, while they are at it, maybe all of the “working class” folk of North America who incidently GEICO “targets” for “customers” should switch their insurance from the green lizard, I mean Geeko! (tee hee!)
I think I will change mine today!

According to Yahoo Finance, AB has $9 billion in debt. So, InBev is also acquiring that debt making the true cost of the transaction more like $55 bil.

Here’s some free advice. AB should arrannge to borrow about $23 billion and do a Dutch Auction. In a Dutch Offering, the company sets a range of say $10, let’s say between $55 and $65 dollars. Shareholders then tender shares for the price they think will get bought (the company would start buying the lowest priced shares first and work up the price spread until the $23 billion is gone). This would retire half the company’s shares if you believe the company is worth $46 billion. The company theoretically is still worth the same as the company has layered on debt that it didn’t have. Someone might choose to tender shares if they didn’t believe the deal would close. This new debt might make the company less attractive to InBev and those who didn’t tender would obviously be those who want more than 65.. This would allow those who want to sell at these levels a chance to cash out and those who want to stay the chance to stay with current management. It beats the Belgian Auction we are having now.

I hope to see the day Buffet is dead so I can celebrate teh death of Americas new number 1 traitor. Did these inbev scumbags ever consider how many of us will move on to american owned microbrew, but i suppose they will buy all of those also. This is where george bush has lead our country…..made it so weak anyone can come and buy what they please….

Anyone else find the recent AB commercials very ironic? The “commitment” commercial comes to mind. An attractive woman spouting off about how Budweiser hasn’t changed in so many years, and the tradition, and blah, blah, blah….I can’t watch the commercial without laughing now!

Just because my house is not for sale now doesnt meant I will not accept a deal when someone presents me with an offer that grossly overpays. This is exactly the case with AB.

Foreigners paying ridiculous premiums buying US assets is nothing new - remember Japanese in the ’80’s (and the movie “Rising Sun”) and really set those companies back. The Chinese and others have yet to show that they can do better.

Also, AB became a target because it is one of the most bloated companies out there and InBev sees a lot of cost savings (ie taking away the free 2 cases of beer employees get every month).

In the animal kingdom, you are either the hunter or the hunted, why should capitalism be any different? AB is paying the price for falling asleep at the wheel and being fat, dump and happy for way too long.