14 July 2008: InBev buys Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion
Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser and an American icon, agreed to be bought by Belgium's InBev for $70 a share, about $52 billion in cash. Weeks earlier the company had been resisting fiercely. The deal created the world's largest brewer, run by famously cost-focused managers. It was a reminder that a beloved brand is still just a business, and a business is for sale if the price is right.
The lesson: Brand loyalty belongs to customers; the company itself always has a price for the right buyer.
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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