BigGuy

Anheuser Busch: The First Round Is On Bud Shareholders

Family run firms that get beyond the third generation are consistently better managed and have better long run stock performance. Figuring in how well Bud is managed now and what management could do now to get the stock price up, without being acquired, $70 a share is still too low a bid.

There have been many studies through the years attesting to the strength of family management. Here's a news article referencing a few: a 2006 IHT article about family firm's outperformance:
www.iht.com/articles/2... /mfamily.php?page=3

The Hilton and Wrigley families have sold out at top dollar. The Bancrofts were stewards of Dow Jones for many years, not managers. The Busch's are more like the Hilton's and Wrigley's -- they've been good managers.

BUD's two major assets are not on the balance sheet and are not figured into the stock price. One, their distribution system is just about the best of any legally controlled and monitored product -- alcohol, tobacco, firearms, or prescription drugs. Two, the goodwill maintained by the firm is primarily a gift of the Busch family, which substantially undervalues itself (no matter the size of Busch family egos). Economists value such goodwill as 10 to 25% of a firm's capitalization; follow up from the IHT article to find academic studies backing that assertion.