Anheuser-Busch on the Block: What a Difference Fifteen Years Makes

The potential sale of Anheuser Busch to a Belgian company, InBev, has produced the normal local efforts to block the sale from the Missouri governor, the St. Louis mayor, and St. Louis employees.  What is different is the heavy push back in the national financial press supporting the bid.  Anheuser Busch management, top heavy with Busch family members, has been average at best and the family only owns 5 percent of the stock.  The company's staggered board is fully eliminated by the 2009 elections and it has no poison pill in place.  Warren Buffet is a major shareholder, one who trumpets investing in management and often supports incumbents in hostile bids for privileged preferred stock positions.  The bid is thus a litmus paper test of several things:  1) takeover popularity 2) last minute takeover defenses  and 3) the prominence of share price.