Over the weekend, the world’s largest brewery was bought by a Belgian/Brazilian brewery named InBev. Anheuser-Busch has been brewing American beer for over 150 years, starting in St. Louis, Missouri. Anheuser-Busch has its name on many things and places, ranging from Busch Gardens to the NASCAR Busch (now Nationwide) Series to Busch Stadium.
The Budweiser Clydesdales were an icon of American society when I was a child. Everyone know what they were, and what brand they symbolized. The clydesdales represent strength and power, which is exactly what Anheuser-Busch is to the beer brewing industry. That’s not to say that another strong horse, say a Belgian, wouldn’t fit that role. It just wouldn’t be the same.
Anheuser-Busch is responsible for many beverages including Budweiser, Busch, Michelob, all their kin, and a handful of other well-known items. The merger between the world’s largest brewery in terms of revenue and the world’s second largest brewery is an historic and wide-reaching one. I just hope this doesn’t mess up the formula that is American beer.
Let’s take a look at some mergers (and their values) in recent history:
- Sprint/Nextel ($35 B)
- Google/YouTube ($1.65 B)
- Sirius/XM (though not quite there yet, near $4.5 B I believe)
- Adobe/Macromedia ($3.4 B)
- Yahoo/Flickr (undisclosed)
- Sun/MySQL ($1 B)
The newly formed Anheuser-Busch InBev will incorporate total value of $52 billion, surpassing the Sprint-Nextel disaster merger by a wide margin. Estimates put sales of the new company at $36.4 billion annually, which is unfathomable considering all they do is make beer and other beverages. Hopefully our great American beers stay strong (and the same) in the new company.
