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. 
“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.”
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The “fat cats” didn’t sell the company. The shareholders did. Try to learn how business works.
The shareholders have spoken. AB management was lax in not seeing this coming.
AB will be a shell of a company within 5 years. The InBev team is all about absorbing and cutting until nothing exists but the name. Then they wonder why sales have dropped and no one is buying their “generic” beer.
I have been a Bud Light and Mich Light drinker for over 20 years. I’m now looking for something comparable that will ease my conscious of thousands of multi-year employees are getting fired because of greed. Remember, this isn’t AB going out of business because it’s weak, it’s a weak company buying a strong company and punishing the loyal workers for their success and years of hard work and service.
InBev can kiss my ass.
The Genious, try to learn how business works. “The Fat Cats” being the Busch family who owned the company to begin with. They most certainly sold the company to other share holders. The current “Fat Cats” i.e. Warren Buffet, are(were) the wealthy individuals who own(owned) the majority of the stock and made the decision. Don’t think for one second that all the shares owned by all the past and current “workers” of AB amounted to a hill of beans. I know perfectly well how a publicly owned company sale/takeover happens. Now go formulate your own opinion.
Shareholders voted to sell? Reality is that not one actual employee or small stock holder who I have asked voted to sell their stock. The fat cats that owned vast lots of stock are the ones who voted to sell it. So, yes it was the fat cats who made the choice for everyone and will walk away with millions, while the small guy struggles to pay the taxes on what he gets. Very little democratic about it. Kind of like electoral votes, you do not have to have the majority of the people to vote for you in order to get something your way. Wonder how the stock sale vote would have stacked up if each stockholder had gotten one vote, regardles of how many shares they held? Also, as an American taxpayer, I am more than a bit upset that at least one of the banks financing this merger (called that instead of a sale so that the employees get less if they qualify for benefits by losign their jobs) are getting bailout money from the U.S. government. Let’s see, my taxes go to pay the bank that will finance a foreign company to buy an American company. This is the reality of the society we live in.
Not to mention, The Genius, that the people who will lose their jobs now? It will all be to increase the bottom line, which will likely increase the bonus’ of all the board members immensley. Hard working people will lose their homes so that the uber rich can afford a second yacht.
We have been told that anything, ANYTHING, that does not have to do with brewing beer will be gone. The Clysdales, the dalmations. the entire horse team, Grant’s Farm, Busch Gardens, all of it. It is sad when heritage and accomplishments mean so little and the almighty dollar means everything. As an employee, I believe we’ve all been duped. Look at what InBev has done to other companies it has purchased and you tell me how bright the future looks. I don’t believe it would have been as easy for a US company to buy a Belgian company. Do you????? Greed is the bottom line. Oh well.
Hostile TAKEOVER folks. Not a merger. Lets hope the DOJ won’t let that language change. He will do anything to getting around making things right with the employees that are getting cut.
I guest Gussie rolling over in his tomb.
I think it a shame went all these company sell to company’s over sea’s. My queation is how do they or you expect people here to make a living. Also you want customer loyal, but is not a two way street. Thanks