What do you think about Anheuser-Busch being bought by a Belgium company?

The world is flat after all.

Not much is really american-owned these days. Maybe it will smell better when I drive by.

Sad. It makes me sad to hear the news.

That’s all.

It is finally getting closer to home.

Correction: Belgian company, not Belgium company. Times 2.

Maybe when the Cardinals play in InBev Stadium they’ll be able to afford to make some trades to stay in the pennant race. Not how it works? Drag.

Just be glad it wasn’t Heineken…

Well on the bright side it may improve the taste of Bud (I find it a bit watery).

But seriously I hear what you are saying. In the UK it seems like everything is owned by someone else. Just look at the car industry for example Mini, Rolls Royce, Bentley etc.

LOL! @wildflower Heineken was bought out by the Budwiser group. Yep, was living in Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA when they closed down the old Heineken plant there.

@lefteh – I had the same reaction as you…I have always thought of them as something “truly american” and they advertise that in their Budweiser commercials. I wonder if this will change their commercials during the Super Bowl…..

Sadder still is the fact that they may not keep the Clydesdales, which truly are an American symbol like Chevy trucks and John Deere tractors.

Here in Orlando the big news is that they have announced they will sell the Busch entertainment group, which includes Sea World in Orlando and San Diego (&one other city) and the Busch Gardens Parks (one in Tampa and one in Williamsburg at least).

It’s probably a good thing.

You see, Belgian scientists have found out how to stop one of their country’s most famous products – beer – from going bad.

Now, all they gotta do is figure out how to stop the production of bad beer in the first place.

By the way, A-B has a long and varied list of brands (more than 100 brands and 12 breweries) that they either produce or import.

Different beers suit different needs, palates, and prices.

So, for the American consumer, I wouldn’t expect much change in established product lines.

SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!!!!

What! No Clydesdale s?! That would be awful.

Budweiser, an Anheiser-Busch product, was originally designed to be the least offensive-tasting beer on the market. This was an important marketing strategy to United States citizens in the early 20th century. As market globalization has taken hold, people now realize that a good beer can have strong flavors and character, such as some beers made elsewhere in the world. Microbreweries making distinct and flavorful beers have had a lot of success in the USA in recent years. But the mass-market (Budweiser, Coors, Miller) brands still have most of the market share.

While it’s interesting that a Belgian company wants to buy Anheiser-Busch, I doubt they will make serious changes to the products which are already some of the most successful ever. Anheiser-Busch has already started to make different styles of beer, such as Budweiser World Select (designed to be less watery than Budweiser), and Ziegenbock (a beer sold in Texas to steal market share from Shiner Bock, the most successful local beer in Texas). I think we could see more flavorful styles of beer released under Anheiser-Busch bottling authority, but I can’t imagine they would remove successful products from market.

Incidentally, there is now a trend in Germany for large corporate labels to mass-produce their beers, pushing out traditional local styles. There is some controversy about this, but the model came from America’s super-breweries. Capitalism does produce better profits…but not always better products.

Mmmmm… Ziegenbock is good. Shiner’s even better.

Texas is awesome.

@timothykinney People don’t think the beer will change, they didn’t change Stella which InBev purchased it.

People DO think, that the loss of one of the oldest and most famous brands in America is a tragedy. IMHO the potential loss of thousands of Midwestern-American’s jobs in an especially bad economy is why this is a big deal.

Is getting drunk really in danger of going out of style during hard times?

Although we may face a weak economy, I think it would be unusual for InBev to purchase a large and profitable company just to liquidate it. But you never know…strange times could lead to strange decisions.

From the report I heard, they’re keeping all the American plants operational (though who knows if that will stick).

Let’s just hope they continue to air the commercials (specifically, start airing the one I’m in).

@Andrew, are you a Real Man of Genius?

Wait.

Are you Mr. Jean Shorts (JORTS) Inventor???

Ooo, which one is that so I don’t fast forward over it. No one has mentioned it to me yet.

I honestly would sell for $64 billion also. I hate to see it happen though.

If our political leaders will sell our roads and infrastructure to foreign interests why not sell all our assets right?

Thanks George! At some point we all need to begin a debate about who is really benefiting from the globalization policies being followed. At this point, one way to object is to STOP BUYING BUD after they complete the sale, and if that can ever catch on, sell their stock short.

Good for Cindy McCain, she needs the money.