Well, I am back in the saddle....5 1/2 weeks off...wow....now it seems like I never left! One thing I missed out on was news when I was on my trip...no radio, paper or TV...so getting back to reality was ......fun.
OK so InBev wants to buy Anheuser Busch! I guess from an investor's side....I would think, take the money and run. However, being from St. Louis....it's a different play.
Inbev, a Belgian outfit, along with the rest of Europe is fat with cash. The dollar is a mess and with the stock market where it is....companies look cheap to Europeans, not to mention most of the rest of the world.
I hope AB fights this with all they have....I have heard that AB has been a great corporate citizen and also great to it's employees. They are not perfect....remember when they bought Rolling Rock? They closed the facility in La Trobe PA and made the stuff in Jersey. But overall, AB is a great place and part of St. Louis history.
This along with many of the aqusitions by global companies will not help our economy. AB needs to buck up and fight the good fight.
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Since Inbev is more dominant in Europe and AB has the US market well in hand, this could be a perfect fit.
With its stature in the US, I don't think InBev would do much to the St. Louis headquarters of AB. A layer of management gets let go, but you don't pick-up and leave the headquarters of the US market in the most recognizable area of the country for the company you are buying.
A more logical solution would be to change the InBev name to the Anhueser Busch name and roll with that. AB is a much more recognizable name.
I don't think St. Louis folks are looking at the positive side of this buyout.
Along these same lines, did you see that Wachovia made a much larger donation to the St. Louis Symphony than it predecessor (AG Edwards) made.
The benefactors of all the AB money in St. Louis (non-profits) are getting very nervous about the fallout of an InBev deal, but perhaps this is an opportunity.
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