Budweiser tells their potential buyers to go to hell.

That was a big mistake on their part.

Looks like Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (BUD) shareholders have InBev to thank for increasing value by about 1/3 in just 2 months:



If you were management of Busch, why would you accept an offer for $65/share when your shareholders already have over $62/share in their pockets?

Of course, one of the beauties of takeover bids is this--sometimes they work, even when they don't work. What I mean by that is that sometimes it takes a takeover attempt to kick management in the arse and make them get their crap together and come up with a sensible plan. Most of the time (especially for mature industries), that just involves getting rid of the free cash flow problem. It appears that Busch's management is taking steps to do just that:

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Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc (BUD.N) on Friday laid out a plan to cut $1 billion in costs and improve earnings as it tries to convince investors that InBev NV's (INTB.BR) $46.3 billion offer for the largest U.S. brewer was too low.

The program, which the company calls "Blue Ocean" was made even as InBev said on Friday it was mulling what steps to take next after Anheuser-Busch rejected its $65-a-share offer on Thursday.

The plan includes cutting 10 to 15 percent of its salaried workforce through early retirement and attrition, speeding up price hikes to cope with rising commodity costs, and setting earnings forecasts that exceed Wall Street's expectations.

The company also said it planned to repurchase a total of $7 billion in shares this year and next, up from its previous repurchase target of $3.8 billion.

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Three cheers for cowboy capitalism!!!

Budweiser Beer=

Budweiser selling out to the Europeans is like having barack obama in the white house

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They are getting ready to kick the board out and do a hostile so it's not over.

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Yeah, I would be really surprised if it were. The point is, current management has no reason to give in to the offer given in the article. It's too weak. Even shareholders who are praying for a buyout want management to try to hold out for better terms. That's the way buyouts work. Hopefully InBev didn't screw this up by laying all their cards out on the table too soon.

Still, no matter how it ends up, shareholders are better now, because management has been forced to run the company better. They were obviously wasting too much of shareholders' capital before InBev came into the picture. I'm glad somebody decided to give them a swift kick in the arse, because evidently they needed it.

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Oh, well yeah, it's not in management's best interests to do what's best for shareholders here.

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You been drinking the milehigh water supply?

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at least until I get my goddamn golden parachute of stock options and bonuses for doing all the difficult merger work to "smooth" the transition.

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I actually when through two acquisitions in 18 months (pre the recent arby's takeover of wendy's). The first was friendly and completely botched, and management walked away with a nice check. The second was hostile and well executed by both sides, and management walked away with a VERY nice check. In both instances, the company upped equity offers to retain key staff, which paid off nicely for me.

They are going to get paid, and paid a lot.

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It's a dangerous and delicate dance to be sure, but possibly a very profitable one.

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Why don't you give jerry yang a call, with icahn on the line........

I almost want to do a picture of jerry yang with a FAIL written on it.

Will be funnier in 2 years when yahoo is a penny stock (ok, maybe not a penny stock...)

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That was a big mistake on their part.

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I agree

LINK

100% disagree!! This was a short-sighted move that hurts American businesses. It made the stock-holders some quick money, but opens the flood gates for Europe to buy huge landmark American companies.