$50 billion and you can become the world’s largest beer manufacturer.

Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold to InBev

The combined company is expected to be named Anheuser-Busch InBev, fulfilling a promise by the Belgian company to include the Anheuser name in the new brewer’s title, people briefed on the matter said. Anheuser will be given two seats on the board, including one for August A. Busch IV, the company’s chief executive and a scion of its controlling family.

When this deal is consummated, the three largest brewers in the U.S. will not be American-owned at all.

Job Cuts Inevitable For InBev-Anheuser

Gerard Rijk, an analyst with ING Financial Markets, said job cuts would happen particularly at the corporate level, as well as in the marketing and administrative departments. “The companies can merge their businesses in the UK, China and North America,” he said.

In response to concerns of job cuts, InBev, whose mostly Brazilian management team has a reputation for ruthless cost-cutting, promised to keep the headquarters of the North American division of the company in St. Louis and pledged that it wouldn’t close any of Anheuser’s breweries.

That $50 billion purchase price will require $45 billion in debt. Gotta pay off those loans somehow.

I guess if you want to drink an American light lager that’s truly American, Pabst is your beer. Or Yuengling. They’re #4 and #6 respectively of the top beer brands in 2007. Samuel Adams is #5.

It is being widely reported this weekend that InBev has increased their offer to $70 per share for Anheuser-Busch, and that the A-B Board of Directors is prepared to accept the offer.

InBev had recently begun a campaign to unseat the current Board. But, apparently confident the deal will go through, InBev has already begun setting up the loans it will need to finance the deal.

Belgian brewer would pay $70 a share

An official announcement will probably be made Monday.

There are still plenty of folks opposed to the deal. Some, however, haven’t completely thought things through.

This Bud Might Not Be for Them

Jordan Moore took the news that his beloved Budweiser could soon fall into foreign hands very personally: He decided he would scrap his plan to get the logo of the King of Beers tattooed on his right rib cage.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” said the 21-year-old concrete worker during his lunch break at The Brick of St. Louis bar, in the shadow of this city’s storied Anheuser-Busch Cos. brewery, “if Budweiser is made by a different country, I don’t drink Budweiser anymore. I’ll go back to Wild Turkey.” (Wild Turkey, a Kentucky bourbon, is owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard SA.)

I’ll bet he also shops at Wal-Mart, where just about everything in there is manufactured in China. (Except for some of the display racks. I know they’re made in the U.S. because my brother makes them.)

Expect there to be continuing resistance from political corners as well.

InBev Raises Its Offer for Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser’s about-face risks raising the hackles of Missouri politicians and customers who rallied to the brewer’s side as it sought to fight off the unwanted advances. InBev sought to head off criticism by promising to keep the combined company’s headquarters in St. Louis and to maintain “the Anheuser-Busch heritage” in the new entity’s name.

That did little to assuage Matthew R. Blunt, the governor of Missouri, who said he was “strongly opposed” to an InBev takeover of Anheuser. Last month, he requested a review of the offer by the Federal Trade Commission.

“I am concerned that this sale would have destabilizing impacts on our nation and state’s long-term economic interests,” Mr. Blunt wrote in a letter to the regulator. “I am opposed to this buyout and am asking you to conduct this review as quickly as possible.”

Anheuser’s political support crossed party lines. Mr. Blunt and Christopher S. Bond, Missouri’s Republican senator, were joined by two of the state’s top Democrats: the state’s other United States senator, Claire McCaskill, and Mayor Francis G. Slay of St. Louis.

Mr. Bond said, “InBev buying Anheuser-Busch is as popular in St. Louis as $4 gas.”

And perhaps just as inevitable.

Once again, it looks like the only winners in this deal are shareholders.

Maybe they need someone to take the role of Cyrano de Bergerac.

InBev Remains Committed to $46.3 Billion Anheuser Bid

InBev NV, whose bid for Anheuser-Busch Cos. was rejected by the Budweiser maker, repeated that it’s committed to its offer of $65 a share and would prefer a friendly takeover.

The bid reflects the “full and fair” value of the company, InBev Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said in an e-mailed statement today. The Leuven, Belgium-based brewer will pursue “all available avenues” to allow Anheuser shareholders to vote directly on the offer.

Meanwhile, A-B has already announced a reduction in its workforce, reduction in pensions, and an increase in the employee contributions for healthcare, all in an effort to cut costs and remain independent.

Yesterday, Anheuser-Busch’s Board of Directors rejected InBev’s unsolicited takeover offer. Saying that $65 per share was “financially inadequate”, the Board left open the possibility that a higher offer might sweep them off their feet.

Meanwhile, InBev has stated that it will ask A-B shareholders to dump the current Board. However, some analysts  think that the Belgian/Brazilian titan will sweeten its offer, perhaps as high as $75 per share.

InBev May Need $7 Billion More to Win Over Anheuser

Anheuser-Busch’s rejection of the offer yesterday was the board’s first response since InBev made its unsolicited proposal June 11. InBev said it preferred a friendly combination of its Bass, Beck’s and Stella Artois with Budweiser, while still pursuing an ouster of the board.

A purchase at the current price would be the biggest of a consumer company since Procter & Gamble Co. bought Gillette Co. for $57 billion in 2005.

While Busch told distributors in April that the company wouldn’t be sold while he was in charge, the family doesn’t own enough shares to sway a shareholder vote on the board. Directors and executives hold 4.5 percent of the company’s shares, according to a regulatory filing earlier this year.  

This corporate soap opera continues, with analysts figuring that any more than $67 per share will make the deal unprofitable for InBev. Additionally, A-B is not above dumping some divisions and implementing cost-cutting measures to boost its stock price.

Meanwhile, the fate of thousands of employees–who, in their own way, are beer lovers–hangs in the balance.

Tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode of Beers of Our Lives.