America For Sale ???

Courtesy of the Associated Press:  BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The maker of the King of Beers has agreed to go to work for the Belgian brewer InBev SA. Anheuser Busch said early Monday it had agreed to a sweetened $52 billion takeover bid from InBev, creating the world's largest brewer and heading off what was shaping up as an acrimonious fight for the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light beers. Inbev brands include Stella Artois, Beck's and Bass.  The deal, which would also create the third-largest consumer product company, will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev. The deal is expected to close by year-end.

"What consumers care is that their Bud will always be their Bud, and that's what we're committed to, not only the product, the quality, the beer ... but also the heritage, the breweries, who brews the beers, and everything that's connected to the breweries," InBev CEO Carlos Brito said in a media conference call.  For InBev, the deal gives an aggressive company an iconic beer brand - Budweiser - to sell into emerging markets such as China and Brazil where it has already established a wide network.

InBev is the world's second-largest beer-maker, narrowly behind SABMiller. Swallowing Anheuser-Busch sees it leap ahead, capturing half of the U.S. beer market and a fifth of China and Russia.

InBev said it plans to use St. Louis as its North American headquarters, and that it will keep open all 12 of Anheuser-Busch's North American breweries.  Brito tried to reassure workers worried about possible job loses, saying the company could instead expect "growth and investment" despite Anheuser-Busch's existing plans to shed 1,185 positions - mostly by offering early retirement and not filling existing vacancies.

Few products are associated with America as much as Budweiser, which its owner calls the King of Beers. Its Clydesdale horses are fixtures of Super Bowl ads, and even the label is red, white and blue, with an eagle swooping through the "A."   To some in St. Louis, losing Anheuser-Busch to a foreign buyer meant losing a little bit of history. From college buildings to theme parks to offices to the stadium where the Cardinals play baseball, the Busch name is virtually everywhere in the Gateway City.

AP Business Writer Christopher Leonard wrote from St. Louis, and Associated Press writer Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.  [End of the R&D by Bucko, Rip off and Duplicate that is :o)]

 

 

What a shame, the loss of another American icon.  AOL today featured some other icons and their current owners:

 

Citgo                             -         Venezuela

Good Humor                 -        British/Dutch (Unilever)

Ben and Jerry’s             -        British/Dutch (Unilever)

French’s Mustard          -        British

Frigidaire                       -        Sweden

Caribou Coffee            -        Bahrain

Church’s Chicken         -        Bahrain

Trader Joes                  -        German

7-Eleven                        -        Japan

Holiday Inn                    -        British

Dial Soap                      -        Germany

T-Mobile                        -        Germany

Firestone                       -        Japan

Sunglass Hut                -        Italy

Tollhouse Cookies       -        Switzerland

 

And closer to home:

 

Indiana Toll Road         -        Spain/Australia

Chicago Skyway           -        Spain/Australia

 

This does not even begin to address the real-estate (a.k.a., major buildings in major cities) that has been purchased by foreign investors. 

 

Alas, our American focus is mostly on short term results, measured on a quarterly basis.  This short sighted approach could end up turning us into a marginalized country, at the beck and call of our purse string holders.

 

I hope that we can get to the point that we focus our energies on the end goal, and then develop a plan that achieves those goals, and not at the expense of the quick buck.  If Anheuser-Busch had not accepted the buy-out bid, there would have been lawsuits from investors claiming that the shareholders best interests had not been served. 

 

Perhaps we should train a few more lawyers, then perhaps we can sell off the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone Park, and _________________, you fill in the American Icon.