Anheuser-Busch agreed on Sunday night to sell itself to the Belgian brewer InBev for about $52 billion, putting control of the nation’s largest beer maker and a fixture of American culture into a European rival’s hands.The terrorists have won. Budweiser, the quintessential American swill, is now in the hands of the European. Next they'll be adding flavor to it's water-like taste and pumping it full of additives that turn us into appeasers and make us like socialized medicine. Oh woe is this new apocalypse. Lou Dobbs is probably shitting himself as we speak.
InBev confirmed details of the sale Monday in Brussels.
The all-cash deal, for $70 a share, would create the world’s largest brewer, uniting the maker of Budweiser and Michelob with the producer of Stella Artois, Bass and Brahma. Together, the two companies would have sales of more than $36 billion a year, surpassing the current No. 1 brewer, SABMiller of London.
On a more serious note, this might have a major effect on American sports advertising. Budwiser is one of the biggest advertisers in the nation, and is especially connected with the NFL. Every Sunday the only thing that breaks up the Bud ads is the erection pill ads. In-Bev is notorious for lower visibility non-'complete saturation' advertising, in direct contrast to Anheuser-Busch, which would get a robot bottle creature to violate your eyes with it's glass dong while it poured whatever new brew concoction they conceived of down your throat if they thought it would increase sales by 1%. So this could have billion dollar implications for US sports. Whither the 'Whaaaaaaaasuuuuuup' guys?
Of regional note, this makes Yuengling the #2 largest American owned brewery now. They brew almost as much beer as Samuel Adams (the #1, 1.358 million barrels to 1.2 million barrels), but are only available in 10 states as opposed to Adams worldwide business. 10 states drink the shit out of Yuengling. I know I do my part.
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