User 225407

Anheuser Busch: The First Round Is On Bud Shareholders

To the first commenter:

Debt financing is not a terrible burden. If you look at the Modigiliani-Miller theorem en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., you'll find that the effect of leverage is not nearly as big an issue as it seems.

Operationally the firm won't change much, simply because foreigners own it. The theme parks are still profitable (or not - I don't know), and new owners will continue to operate them as long as they have a positive net present value. If they don't, they should have been closed anyway.

Even the brand "Budweiser" probably won't change, because that brand has a tremendous amount of value associated with it. You'll still see the hillarious Bud-Light commercials, etc. New ownership won't really change anything, as the goal of the firm has been, and always will be, to make money. Because of national emotions, we may even see the name "Anheuser-Busch" continue to exist "Anheuser-Bush, St. Louis MO, a subsidiary of InBev Co." or something to the effect.

Buffet/Ichan are completely unrelated to this issue, but:

I understand that you are upset with successful people. You must still understand that they add value to the economy. When any investor buys securities, s/he allocates capital to the firms that s/he thinks are most likely to perform. This encourages firms to perform well, streamline operations, and generally become more efficient. You mention that "short term return" is a "shame". Yet Buffett/Ichan are far from short-term traders. These men are true owners of their firms, and treat them as their children.

Lastly, America is not selling Anheuser-Busch, its shareholders are. In no way do the citizens of the United States have any say in the matter. If they don't view Anheuser-Busch as their "mother" then it's not a problem. If they did, then they probably wouldn't sell it.

Businesses ARE businesses, nothing more, nothing less. Emotional investing will not result in the best gains for the economy. Coincidentally in the current poor economic times, the economy has become the #1 issue in the upcoming presidential election according to this poll edition.cnn.com/ELECTI.../. Thus, we should be doing everything we can to improve it.

So no, it's not time.