Early Sunday evening, news broke that Anheuser-Busch Cos. directors accepted a $70 per share takeover offer from Belgium’s InBev.
The new company will be known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. Will this be a good deal or a bad deal for St. Louis region?
“This is awful! When will America quit letting all these shareholders make all the decisions what happened to the little person’s voice I thought A-B was one of the only companies left that cared about the little man…”
Are you kidding? The shareholders are the ones who put their hard-earned money at risk to invest in the company and hopefully see their investment grow. And you have the temerity to disparage the very same individuals whose investment allowed that company to exist to provide the beverages you so enjoy? You’re way out of line. The company did not exist for the betterment of the little guy. The company didn’t go public years ago for the betterment of the little guy. Investors didn’t put their hard-earned money where their mouths were for the betterment of the little guy.
That’s nice that you like the company. But you’ve got no right to elevate your interests above those who were willing to take RISK to see that company succeed. Your interests are subordinated because your risk extended only so far as the possibility of getting a sub-par product.
Absolutely stupid that no one is blaming the real people responsible for this– August Busch III and IV. They sold you a bill of goods, St. Louis! Don’t you remember the commercials talking about them being a family company, and the real AMERICAN LAGER? Don’t you remember the comments saying that they were going to fight this, that AB wasn’t for sale? Then explain to me how they only have 1.4% of the stock… or that they don’t have voting rights on the board? Give me a break. The time of the real AMERICAN, FAMILY LAGER died when Gussie Busch passed away. The torch has been passed. Long live the real hometown breweries– Schlafly, O’Fallon, Allendale… hopefully they will capitalize on AB’s mistakes, and grow stronger. And as for the employees of AB– I am sorry. I feel for those who will lose their jobs eventually. But if it wasn’t for the egotistical, arrogant swagger that you and your distributors have carried around this town for years (no doubt cultivated by those at the top) the deal that nobody wanted wouldn’t have happened.
So drink up St. Louis, sidle on up to the bar and raise a glass of the NEW BELGIAN LAGER in a toast to the company that deserves their come-uppins!
if you didn’t want inbev to buy anheuser-busch they should never have went public with the company and kept it in family control. i suppose loyalty does have it price.
i see so many people saddened by a-b being bought out by inbev yet the busch’s could careless. so why should i care?
Very good point, KC
Congratulations, St. Louis…you’re the NEW Detroit. I yie, yie. Good luck, folks. I can’t believe this actually happened.
This is a sad day for America–and St. Louis. But, it may not be the end of the story. Granite City Steel was sold to the Japanese in the 1980s and sold back to US Steel just over a decade later. Chrysler was sold to the Germans and then back to an American equity firm. But, it does speak to the weakening of our currency and will most likely result in the loss of St. Louis jobs. A real shame…
“If the people of St. Louis really wanted to keep A-B American-owned, then they could buy the majority of the outstanding shares and vote against the takeover.”
Amen. But that would require putting money where one’s mouth is, and it’s so much easier to do nothing and then complain that your desires aren’t being considered or respected. Obama voters, presumably.
Andrew - if you’d like to know what it would be like if A-B owned the Cardinals, read up on the Toronto Blue Jays history. The team won back-to-back world series in 1992 and 1993, and let’s just say when Interbrew (now InBev) took over majority team owner Labatt in 1994, things went downhill. Coincidence? Fortunately, since 2000 Rogers, a Canadian company is the majority owner, and trying to turn things around.
Oh, and in a non-baseball note, they closed a brewery in Toronto, Canada’s largest city.
Horrible for St. Louis and if we boycott, Inbev will shut the brewery down alot quicker than they originally have planned, our once proud city will continue its slide into oblivion, soon we will be competing with the Little Rocks and Shreveports, when are the Rams Poised to leave, and the blues. Sad, I Love St. Louis but less and less of it to Love, I imagine the museums will be closing and the zoo soon.