Anheuser-Busch agreed to sell to Belgium’s InBev last night, demonstrating that all the howls about American pride were mere haggling over price. All it took was raising the offer to $70 per share from $65 per share — “a 27 percent premium over Anheuser’s record-high stock price in October 2002” — and giving a Busch a seat on the board.
The combined company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev, said the sources, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. Anheuser will get seats on the new company’s board, the sources said, but it was not immediately clear how many.
Adding another dimension to any deal was Mexico’s No. 1 brewer Grupo Modelo, which is 50 percent owned by Anheuser. The maker of Corona beer, which has the right to choose its partner, has not yet approved InBev for that role and the two brewers remain in talks, according to one person familiar with the situation.
One suspects that hurdle will prove minor; the combined company would easily be the world’s top beer distributor and it would be foolish, indeed, for Modelo to opt out of access to that network. What remains to be seen is whether Missouri politicians or anti-trust forces try to stop this deal.
Previously: Anheuser-Busch $46 Billion Belgian Buyout Bid
Related: No Beer, No Civilization, Beer vs. Wine Vote
