Tom Jacobs

Anheuser-Busch: The Big Bid For Bud

What is this, France? Why not prevent all takeovers of American firms since all have Americans working at them with good people and children whose expenses come from their parent's paychecks? By the way, the "boys on wall street" are simply other Americans who own shares through mutual funds and pension funds, etc. Why should they suffer to support the Americans favored by the author?

Status Report: Anheuser-Busch - InBev

Well, unlike the author, I am a shareholder and would gain much by the 30+% premium the offer represents to the company's value without it. Like Hershey, Bud continues to drag along under the direction of its corporate patricians. I think a little more efficiency in running the firm would be a good thing. Instead of a good return on investment I can look forward to Bud overpaying for Modelo and driving its price well below what it was pre-offer just to keep the Busch family in power - what good does that do for shareholders?

Bud Can't Block InBev with Modelo

No, he has the correct symbol, it trades in the pink sheets:

finance.yahoo.com/q?s=...

As to the genius of August Busch, I think that anyone who is able to "inherit" the title from daddy is questionable and if keeping it independent were really important the family would not have sold their stake down to 4%. Instead we have the typical moral hazzard of being hostage to controlling individuals with no real stake. Why would they want to do what is best for the shareholders as opposed to themselves. As a long time shareholder I keep seeing all these unlimited possibilities for the firm and yet the stock doesn't seem to go anywhere year after year. I am always impressed by how well dressed August Busch is in the annual report, though.