Do you think beer giant AB InBev's offer to buy SABMiller could/should succeed?

Of course nobody involved with the deal gives a shit what happens to you, the employees, or any community, region or country negatively effected. It’s never personal, just business.

So the beer drinkers will be down to about three mass market brands, the only variety of any taste will be artisanal beers that cost $250 a bottle. Makes me glad I quit drinking.

@stanleybmanly _ It’s never personal, just business._

Of course. Every major corporation wants their main product to be acquisition and profit. It doesn’t matter anymore if a corporation produces a product, as long as it produces profit.

@Yetanotheruser I had to go find an article on this that says Heineken said “no way” to an offer from Miller to buy them up citing The Heineken family has informed SABMiller…of its intention to preserve the Heineken heritage and identity of Heineken to remain an independent company.”. So not every major corporation is for sale and not always just about the profits.

I almost always buy craft (or at least local) beer, so what the big guys do is not really much concern to me.

That said, monopolies, or duopolies, are generally bad in the long term.

But this particular one – who cares? Won’t affect me at all.

It could.
Who is to say it should not?

@josie Should not abuse its scale?

A conscience?

Or don’t corporations have those?

I don’t drink beer, but I have a knee-jerk reaction against up-rooting a company from its traditional home base. I understand when a company is weak from mismanagement or financial crisis, but it’s a shame when a company is swallowed whole just so that another company can get even bigger.

I worked for the company that is now General Mills and I remember the perversions they had to commit to swallow Pillsbury. The baking mixes were spun off, much like they say InBev would have to spin Miller and Coors off from SABMiller/MillerCoors to make the sale legit.
“Pillsbury, Pillsbury BEST, the Barrelhead logo and the Doughboy character are trademarks of The Pillsbury Company, LLC, used under license. Bake-Off is a registered trademark of General Mills © 2015.”
Step back.
General Mills owns the Pillsbury name, but licenses it to a company making baking mixes under the acquisition agreement. I can’t even find the name of the company licensed to make Pillsbury baking mixes. General Mills “Betty Crocker” baking mixes are in direct competition with “Pillsbury”, a brand name it owns. Get your mind around that.

An InBev SABMiller merger would have similar machinations, only on a multi-national scale.

Grease the politicians and pay the lawyers. Loopholes the size of the Reusachtig/énorme Canyon!

@ibstubro

Kinda like Kit-Kat – owned by Hershey’s but manufactured by Nestle.

@elbanditoroso you should care, becuase they are the companies that distribute your local/craft beer.

@Cruiser The Heineken family has informed SABMiller…of its intention to preserve the Heineken heritage and identity of Heineken to remain an independent company.

Kudos to Heineken. I was generalizing. I believe the one of the key concepts here is that the Heineken company is family-owned, and the quality of the product is a matter of family pride.