The King of Beers will now be answering to InBev. After months of stern resistance, Anheuser-Busch voted to accept InBev’s $52 billion bid. InBev, a Belgian company known for making Beck’s, Bass, Stella Artois, Hoogarden, and Leffe (just to name a few) has now combined with the American brewery to make the largest in the world. Anheuser-Busch has controlled more than 48 percent of American market share with brands that include Bud Light, we will see how sales in the US are affected by this acquisition.
The concept of the iconic ‘American’ brewery falling into foreign hands sparked fire into the public and politicians. Unfortunately the fire could not be quenched as large shareholders wanting quick cash resulted in the takeover.
InBev has a reputation for cost-cutting yet promised to keep all Anheuser-Busch breweries open. There has been no promise as to Anheuser-Busch employee job security. There has been talk indicating the selling of non-core assets, which would probably include theme parks (Sea World and Busch Gardens).
It should be interesting to see how other American beer companies will respond to this takeover. I’m sure in the coming weeks we will see more ‘patriotic’ WE ARE AMERICAN ads from the likes of Sam Adams or other all-american breweries.
7/12/08 – 4.1 miles in 35:32
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I think it is terrible that there are any beer companies at all Nobody should drink alcohol. It is a toxin, it poisons cells, significantly raises the risk of breast cancer in women, and does lots more bad things. Even if alcohol were healthy, just the fact that it is a mind-altering drug makes it wrong.
While you are at it cindybin, please include cologne, hair spray, high fructose corn syrup, cosmetics, lotions, detergents, diet soda, dairy and meat products with added hormones and antibiotics as well as countless other things. Good luck on avoiding toxins that will poison your cells!
Pretty stern view there cindybin. While there indeed might be a myriad of risks involved with consuming alcohol, in the end it is up to the individual.
Also I believe most adverse conditions you mentioned are a result of alcohol abuse or excessive consumption. You will be hard pressed to find any proof of moderate/slight alcohol consumption causing any harm.
Why the resistance to InBev? At least you might now get some decent beers over there in the USA 🙂
I’m actually all for it blueclock. InBev makes quality beer (Hoogarden being my favorite) and the jobs at the breweries will, for the most part, still be held by Americans.
I just know there are going to be a host of people that are too ‘patriotic’ to drink beer if it’s owned by a foreign country. They don’t seem to realize that the jobs are still held by people of their own country. Oh well.
Hi i work at SeaWorld as an animal trainer…and me as well as others do not like the sale at all!!!
Mikey G you bring up a point about SeaWorld possibly being sold, that I mentioned but really didn’t think about. Apart from being theme parks, Busch Gardens and Sea World provide important conservations funds and education.
All I can hope for is for the new owners (if sold) will continue to put much of their efforts into conservation as Anheuser-Busch did.
This is a response to cindybin, I don’t understand when people say that alcohol shouldn’t be consumed. If you look at research, there are tons of studies that show how consuming red wine, or unfiltered beer is actually good for your health.
When beer or wine are enjoyed moderately, they can be very beneficail to your health. Look at the French and the Germans, they consume more wine and beer per person than us Americans, yet they have longer life expectancies.
Odd don’t you think. A very small minded view that you have, and not very well researched. Granted there are other factors in their living longer, but I wouldn’t say that cutting out alcohol would make them live longer.
I don’t think moderate consumption of alcohol is bad either.
As far as europeans living longer as far as I know they don’t have much use of fluoride,aspartame,HFCS no do they have their governments spraying aluminum from the skies, so alcohol is pretty low on the list of health hazards!
I doubt cindybin’s mind will ever be changed by a valid argument, but if you stop to think about all the other harmful, mind-altering items in this world, banning alcohol would be a sham. They haven’t made smoking illegal… caffeine is still prevalent in the marketplace as well as other food additives that allegedly cause social disorders. It was stated that food coloring including some forms of Yellow and Red 40 in particular can produce A.D.D. like symptoms in youth.
As for the buy-out of Anheuser-Busch… I’m disheartened. Personally, having been to the St. Louis brewery on numerous occasions and seeing the pride Anheuser-Busch has put into their grounds, tours, and beer it’s a shame to think that it may soon be run down such as Miller’s facilities. Even if the same workers are present… the glue that holds a company together is management.
As for the comment on the quality of American beer… we like it this way. I can’t tell you how many times a friend has persuaded me to try a foreign beer leaving me gagging with a mouth full of bitterness and aftertaste that can only be described as skunk-brew.
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skunk-brew is too generous an insult for foreign beers
To the lady that said nobody should drink..If people didn’t drink civiliaction would have started alot later as the one of the main reasons of people living in large communities was to make and store beer.
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