Anheuser-Busch shareholders approve InBev buyout
Anheuser-Busch shareholders voted today to accept Belgian brewer InBev’s $52 billion buyout of the St. Louis-based company. Anheuser-Busch officials announced the results of the voting at 11:25 a.m. CST during its shareholdering meeting at a hotel in Secaucus, N.J., a few miles from Manhattan.
Owners of more than two-thirds of Anheuser-Busch stock voted for the deal. The 497 million shares cast in favor amounted to 96 percent of all votes cast, which Anheuser-Busch acclaimed as a strong endorsement. Some shareholders abstained from voting.
Coming after Anheuser-Busch’s board unanimously recommended the $70-per-share offer, the vote was expected to be a formality on the way to completing one of the largest corporate takeovers in history. The deal still awaits regulatory approval in China, the U.K. and the U.S.
Weighing the offer and eventually deciding to support the deal “was a very difficult decision for any board to make,” chief executive August A. Busch IV told the crowd of 150 shareholders. “It was discussed and debated extensively.”
In the end, Anheuser-Busch’s board judged that a tie-up with InBev would be the best option for shareholders, and would lead to a “promising future” for the brewer, Busch said.
Sending Budweiser onto an even more global stage — one of InBev’s stated goals — fulfills “the global ambitions of my family,” Busch said. “We are about to sell more beer, to more people, in more countries than any other company in the history of brewing beer.”
When the deal is finalized — expected to happen before the end of the year — Anheuser-Busch’s reign as the biggest independent American brewer will end. The company traces its history as an independent company back five generations, all the way to 1852. That was before the Civil War. This was presumably the final shareholders meeting for the St. Louis-based company, one of the city’s largest employers and one of its best-recognized symbols.
“A bittersweet day,” Busch IV told a reporter as he walked off the stage after the 25-minute meeting.
Several shareholders from New Jersey agreed with him. So, apparently, did Patrick Stokes, the company’s chairman, who shared the stage with Busch.
“I think it’s sad” when a company with as much heritage as Anheuser-Busch loses its independent status, he said. Surrounded by investors and journalists, Stokes spoke briefly in the lobby of the hotel.
“The board of directors represented the shareholders’ interests very well,” said Stokes. “The board of directors is there for the interests of shareholders.”
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
The gutting has started. Most of engineering is being let go. Goal is 2300 workers by the end of the year. Anheuser Busch has to pay off Inbev’s loan with poorer quality, no investment in the company, and heads being chopped. AB didn’t buy Ambev years ago because Ambev’s brewery’s were held together with duct tape. You can see the futre. The gutting of an American icon so folks can make a quick buck.
CONGRATULATION, HOWEVER WHAT HAPPENS TO MY FAVORITE HORSES THE “BUDWEISER CLYDESDALE TEAMS”? I DO HOPE THAT THEY WILL STILL BE IN THE US AND TOURING
THEY ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HORSES BY FAR
How can you cut 2300 jobs but save the Clydesdales??????
You can call the company what ever you want but it is now InBev and don’t say the other companies InBev purchased earlier didn’t warn us. There will be many casualties.
One other question - why are only the guys making the most money out of this sale speaking? Oh - I bet they are sad, but at least their millions will be of some comfort.
This is a sad day for many of the AB employees, this measure simply voted many of our St. Louisians out of a job. My heart goes out to you all.
Capitalism at its best. Capitalism at its worst.
As a native St. Louisan and a Bud drinker I am saddened by this vote, although it was expected. It is important to continue drinking AB products to be sure that the US jobs are saved. I live in Las Vegas and the vast majority here don’t know and don’t care who owns the brewery, just that the quality and taste of the beer does not change. If there is fat in the company it will be trimmed. I for one will continue to drink AB products and hope you do too.
Let’s hope that we see very minimal job loss! Several of my family members work for AB and have been sweatin over this for the last 4 months. Yes this is a terrible day for all, however this is just plain GREED! I want to stop drinking AB products, but I want other to still have a job.
Gob Bless those families who have lost their jobs already!!
I feel for all the people who will lose jobs that they depend to feed their families and put a roof over their heads. Just so some fat cats sitting on their golden thrones with their golden parachutes can fatten their overflowing purses. Even though I rarely drink their low quality products, the eventual dismissal of hundreds of jobs in this community will affect us all in some way or another. I will continue to support the breweries that are owned and operated by St. Louisans in the St. Louis area, who actually care about making a quality beer, rather than making a buck by convincing sheeple that sexy/funny commercials make their colored water somehow good. Here’s to you, Schlafly, O’Fallon, Allendale, Buffalo, Morgan Street, and Square One.
We’re losing jobs well into 500,000 and we’re crying over 2300 jobs? Look saving AB isn’t going to save or region. Losing AB isn’t a nail in the coffin for St. Louis either.
If 2300 lost jobs in the st. louis region is your major gripe then I suggest you pick up a paper.
We need to get these 2300 back on their feet in addition to a larger number of other people without jobs. Oh and we’ll probably see job loss again in the next year since Proposition M didn’t pass. However that doesn’t seem to be a problem with folks here.
Maybe with AB “gone” St. Louis can be about something a little more than “Beer and Baseball”. St. Louis will still remain the corporate headquarters for the Budweiser brand. Mayor Slay has also said he will be discussing with Brito the possibility of moving InBev’s headquarters to St. Louis. If not that then maybe we can position ourselves as the North American HQ.
The likelihood of that happening is slim though because our region isn’t in the shape it needs to be to support a NAHQ. We’ve got a lot of work to do and now is not the time to cry over spilled beer.
AB wasn’t even our biggest company. I believe it was either Emerson or Monsanto.
St. Louisans need to take this as a wakeup call. There is a world outside of the USA looking to compete and we need to position ourselves to compete with it.
That means the region (city/county STL MSA) needs to work together for the betterment of our future. Otherwise we’ll be left behind. We can be a world class city but we have to work at it.
I have lots of friends at AB and know that they will be axed. Sad day for them and their families. On a product note…I have ‘discovered’ other options to AB products - - particularly wine. So many varieties & tastes to enjoy! I encourage you to check it out and enjoy.