St. Louis Fights Back Against Anheuser Busch Takeover by InBev

The biggest news story in St. Louis these days is the possible acquisition of Anheuser Busch brewery by one of the world's biggest beer companies, InBev. InBev is a Belgian brewer probably best known for its Beck's and Stella Artois brands. They recently made an offer to buy the St. Louis based beer giant for $65 per share. This works out to a $47.5 billion offer. Since the Busch family owns only about 4 % of the stock, it's all now up to the shareholders. Busch may attempt to purchase the Mexican Corona brand, which it now owns about half of, but relations between the two companies have not been on a friendly level as of late. So it looks like they may have no choice but to sell.

The shock and suspicion on the streets of St. Louis has been across the board. Go into any small neighborhood bar in the city that is littered with Budweiser signs, (and almost all of them are) and you'd swear that the world is coming to an end. It's almost as if we were losing the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, which by the way, was owned by the Busch's for many years. Most are afraid that even if the brewery stays in St. Louis, (as InBev promises it will) the corporate giant is known for acquiring other breweries and then slashing costs to the bone to recover their investment. There even seems to be a lot of worry about the civic donations that the brewery has made like the wildlife preserve and Grant's Farm. They have already divested themselves of two area restaurants, Bevo Mill and Busch's Grove, for some time now. Some have even expressed lament for the fate of the world famous Clydesdales that reside at Grant's Farm and pull the Budweiser wagon. And what about that cute Dalmatian that rides on it?