Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Stella makes a run for Bud

Stephen Beard Jun 12, 2008
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Stella makes a run for Bud

Stephen Beard Jun 12, 2008
HTML EMBED:
COPY

TEXT OF STORY

Scott Jagow: The maker of Stella Artois beer is making its run at Budweiser. Today, the Belgian company InBev launched a gigantic bid — $46 billion for Anheuser-Busch. Our European correspondent, Stephen Beard, has more.


Stephen Beard: InBev, which makes Stella Artois, is offering $46.9 billion for Anheuser-Busch — in cash. InBev borrowed the money. In spite of the credit crunch, banks are still willing to lend for the right deal.

Anheuser-Busch says it’ll consider the offer. But analysts expect the company to reject it. It’s likely to get a pretty hostile reception in the brewer’s home state of Missouri.

Understandably so, says Scott Mueller of the Cass Business School. Most takeover deals involve big job losses:

Scott Mueller: The average deal has something of the order of 10 to 15 percent of the employees of the target company being fired. If you take those numbers, that would be huge, certainly back in St. Louis as well as other places in the United States where Anheuser-Busch has its operations.

InBev has tried to ease those fears. It says if the takeover goes ahead, it will keep the headquarters in St. Louis and that it has no plans to close down any American breweries.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.