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06.26.2008 4:46 pm

Is the A-B board stalling, holding out or tilting at windmills?

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Today the Anheuser-Busch board of directors rejected a bid by InBev to buy the St. Louis brewer for $65 a share. The board said the offer undervalued A-B. According to our story, board chairman Patrick Stokes said:

The proposed price does not reflect the strength of Anheuser-Busch’s global, iconic brands Bud Light and Budweiser, the top two selling beer brands in the world, with Budweiser selling in more than 80 countries today.

One might look at the board’s stance this way: We might be willing to sell the company — but not at the price you offered.

So is the board holding out for a better price? Or is it sincerely resisting a takeover attempt by the Belgium brewer? Is that a fruitful effort by A-B’s board? Or, realistically, is there anything they can really do to stop a takeover?

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132 comments

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The rejection may not change much in the long run, but it still puts a smile on my face knowing that good ol’ A-B is telling InBev where it can shove its $46 billion takeover bid :)

— Jeff
5:21 pm June 26th, 2008

A-B THANK YOU for telling InBev and the rest of the world that our AMERICAN LAGER can not be bought.

— melanie
5:39 pm June 26th, 2008

I think that something needs to be done about the buying out of American corporations by foreign interests. I applaud A-B for standing their ground! I hope that their shareholders will see the sense in what the Boardmembers are attempting to do!

— Michael Anderson
5:39 pm June 26th, 2008

They’re holding out for at least $70 per share. Expected. A hostile takeover will cost more in the long run and the stubborn will take it to the wall, so to speak. It’s a done deal if the cuties from Brazil decide they really want it. Americans better get used to this sort of thing. Thanks to crooked wall-streeters, we now owe some foreigners more capital than they owe us. We won’t have much more to give them than corporate america’s finest companies. Korea is now out of the axis of evil. Perhaps someday InBev will be too!

— Slugger
5:40 pm June 26th, 2008

I agree with Jeff… it may be fruitless but nothing makes me more proud than AB telling InBev to go to hell. Keep it up AB and maybe you can win this.

— Andrew
5:41 pm June 26th, 2008

I absolutely feel that AB is stalling. As a former employee and current shareholder I feel this is a done deal. The financial gain from this takeover for the shareholders and everyone in the Busch family is huge. The domestic beer market is at a stand still and consolidation is on the verge from Miller and Coors. I know it’s seems un American but it’s just business. I don’t think AB can stop this train, they put themselve in this position. They had to save face and reject this offer, but behind the scenes it’s about bank accounts in today’s economy even for the rich.

— Rob
5:55 pm June 26th, 2008

This is just a lopsided Boards attempt to save the Busch families power. Read the real papers like WSJ. This board is hand picked to defend blue blood power. Real value to the average stockholder is being offered. As far as it being a foreign company. The USA goes into Iraq preaching democracy, but when it hits home like this we want to throw up undemocratic blocks in order to prop up inadequately managed companies. The local outrage is just a typical small minded st. louis approach. That’s why were the 19th ranked city and falling. St. Louis is not just AB. Let’s not focus on saving a giant company that has screwed it up..rather our education systems and the underprivileged.

— phil
6:17 pm June 26th, 2008

Please, please sell to me or I will lose my $50 million, oh who cares, we will just cut more jobs in Belgium, Brazil and Cananda!

Give ‘em hell Auggie the 4th!

— Carlos
6:27 pm June 26th, 2008

Fight for the rich, not fight the rich. Right Carlos.
Cananda? p.s. August the 4th is not on your side pal.

— phil
6:34 pm June 26th, 2008

This is not just “small minded” St. Louis. This is COUNTRY wide. Even the farmers (not St Louis farmers) are vey concerned about their contracts for barley etc. REALLY read up on this Phil, take down the $$$ signs first. You have no idea what this basic monolopy mentality will do. The whole Busch dynasty is old, move on, that left with Gussie. This boils down to foreign TAKEOUT, not merge, takeout. We are letting this happen one by one by these companies hoping that their stockholders are asleep or too blinded by the money. I give it less than 10 years and we all will be working for forgein companies. If they don’t send a lot of it overseas. Funny how most counties won’t even allow this anymore.

Everyone just nows seems to be crying foul with their “stagnent” stock. What happened did you just wake up?? Did the $$$ alarm clock sent from Brito wake you up. NO, you have been satisified considering that most stocks are in the tank as the rest of this country because of problems like this. Fast money, easy money, show me the money NOW mentality is killing us all.

— Lisa
6:35 pm June 26th, 2008

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