from the bigger-beer-is-better-beer dept.
The takeover of SAB Miller by AB InBev has been approved by shareholders (with an increase in the price due to Brexit) and regulators:
Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev's £79bn takeover of rival SAB Miller is set to go ahead after the shareholders of both firms approved the mega-deal. The deal is expected to be completed on 10 October and will create the world's largest beer firm. Global regulators have already approved the deal, which AB InBev says will create "the first truly global brewer".
The enlarged group - which will produce almost a third of the world's beer - will take the AB InBev name. The deal was agreed last year, but in July AB InBev was forced to raise its offer following a fall in the pound in the wake of the Brexit vote. AB InBev increased its offer by £1 a share to £45 a share. [...] The takeover is expected to boost AB InBev's prospects in developing markets in Africa and China, where a SABMiller joint venture produces Snow, the world's best selling beer by volume.
Related Stories
MillerCoors sues Anheuser-Busch over controversial Bud Light Super Bowl ad
MillerCoors filed a lawsuit Thursday against Anheuser-Busch InBev, claiming that its rival's Bud Light ad shown during the Super Bowl is false advertising meant to deceive customers and misuses the Miller and Coors trademarks.
The company is seeking an injunction to stop Bud Light from continuing the ad campaign. MillerCoors is also asking for a trial by jury and for the defendant to pay its legal fees. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported and posted the lawsuit, which was filed in a Wisconsin federal court.
The lawsuit is the latest retaliation from the U.S. subsidiary of Molson Coors Brewing for the Bud Light campaign that shamed Miller Lite and Coors Light for using corn syrup. Backlash from both the targeted brewer and corn industry growers followed. After the ad aired, MillerCoors said that none of its final products contain the ingredient, which is used during the brewing process.
[I think this is the advertisement. --Ed.
Also at Bloomberg, The Hill, AdAge, and WISN.
Related: Why WalMart Ice Cream Doesn't Melt
Playing Small is Okay, Says Judge in "Craft Beer" Case
AB InBev-SAB Miller Deal Approved by Shareholders
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:43PM
I highly dislike the gigantic international corporations, the big ones already wield more influence and power than most countries. They are hardly accountable to anyone (assuming you can get evidence of wrong doing in the first place) and will be (ok, already are) a vector for oppression of the masses. Screw this deal, the revolution should abolish all corporate entities over a certain size and return us to a more localized system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @04:19PM
I agree for products that matter, such as telcos, banking, insurance, and oil.
Not for beer. It's not like there's only a few brands on the shelves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by julian on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:57PM
If you enjoy beer there's never been a better selection of quality products available produced at small scales locally. Inbev's large and growing portfolio doubtless contains something decent, but no matter where you live there's probably a local or regional brewery that you could be supporting instead. And the small guys probably don't use a portion of their profits to lobby against your personal freedom. [theintercept.com]
Don't buy from Inbev.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mhajicek on Wednesday September 28 2016, @11:19PM
Expect rising barriers to entry in the forms of taxes, fees, licenses, inspections, and paperwork.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:30AM
Having monopolistic powers in the distribution channels is yet another barrier to local beers being available outside their immediate area.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:04AM
Yes, plenty of choices now, but as I watch my local business pages (NE USA), I keep reading about local breweries that are being sold out to the big companies.
It's almost like start up software companies that are designed to be bought out by one of the tech giants.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @11:11PM
One Beer to rule them all, One Beer to find them, One Beer to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:21AM
... and most people will describe said beer as "okay"
...and it will be awful.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 29 2016, @08:49AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 29 2016, @04:58PM
Well, there's an ad budget for that.
"Don't you realize you're a loser at life, while all your friends are successful and fun because they drink?"
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday September 29 2016, @02:39AM
One Beer to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
One thing we can be certain of, it will NOT be a dark beer. American Pilsner, not even a Pilsner, really.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @02:38AM
P.J. Willett, brother of Masters champion Danny Willett (England), took aim at drunken American spectators at Ryder Cup matches (US vs. Europe golf) when they're hosted in the USA, as they will be next week in Minnesota. A funny read:
http://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/good-luck-danny-willetts-brother-rips-americans-big-time-before-ryder-cup/ [cbssports.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:41AM
America brews the best beer. And the worst beer.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @03:08AM
Are they going to change Bud so it is an actual beer?
(Score: 3, Funny) by archfeld on Thursday September 29 2016, @04:37AM
you know what they say about American beer, and sex in a boat ? They are both Fsck'n close to water.
I am a huge fan of British darks and Sudwerks Dopplebock. If you can see though a beer it isn't worth drinking.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:10AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:34PM
If you can see though a beer it isn't worth drinking.
Sounds like a good rule to me. I then realized that all of the beers I like fall into this category, porters, stouts, bocks, dopplebocks (the real meal replacement [wikipedia.org] beer), hefe-weisens, various dark Belgian ales, etc. To be fair there are some great beers in the US but they tend to be harder to find and more regional. I can find a lot of good local German style beers here in Minnesota but not so much for Belgian style ones so with those I end up drinking the imports.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2, Funny) by redneckmother on Thursday September 29 2016, @02:26PM
True, so true.
I used to say, "Life's too short to drink cheap beer."
Then, I outlived my income.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @04:16PM
There's very little difference between the light American lager and what you find all throughout Europe and Asia. America has the best, by a huge margin, beer scene than anywhere in the world. The European beer market has gone through, and still is, the consolidation and race to blandness and appeal to the broadest appeal that the US went through in the 70s. That's why we have InBev and SAB in the first place. All of the innovation in the beer world has come out of the US in the last several decades. Besides the popularization of super-hoppy beers and the spirit of creative recipe making, US craft brewers have revived styles and brought others back from the edge of extinction, such as the English porter and the Berliner Weiss, not to mention the explosion in the variety of hops If you haven't realized this, then you clearly weren't paying attention. People like Michael Jackson, Charlie Bamforth, etc. have been preaching this for decades.
Things are turning the corner in Europe. There have been a fair number of cross-ocean collaborative projects, many craft breweries have opened up inspired by the US craft beer movement, and some of the companies that are at the heart of the US craft brewing scene have opened facilities in Europe, such as White Labs yeast company and the Stone Brewing Company.
That all being said, the mega-breweries will always rule the roost. People all over the world are driven predominately by cost, and quite frankly, the masses prefer beer with little taste. The pale lager exploded across the world in the 19th century, and it is no different today.