BLOOMBERG: InBev NV, the maker of Stella Artois lager, agreed to buy Anheuser-Busch Cos. for $49.9 billion to become the world’s biggest brewer and gain almost half of the U.S. market for beer, according to a person with knowledge of the accord. The $70-a-share takeover of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch is the second-biggest of a U.S. consumer-goods company and ends a month of court fights and public disputes over the future of the 156-year-old maker of Budweiser. Leuven, Belgium-based InBev will change its name to Anheuser-Busch InBev, preserving part of the U.S. company’s identity, said the person, who declined to be identified because the transaction isn’t yet public. MORE
BUSINESSWEEK: Even though InBev is the largest brewer in the world, it has lagged behind in the world’s largest beer market: China. Perhaps nothing highlights InBev’s laggard status in China more so than this summer’s Olympics. The Beijing Olympics will have three official beer sponsors: Beijing Yanjing Brewery, Tsingtao Brewery, and Anheuser-Busch (BUD). No InBev. Now, InBev is no longer playing catch-up in China. Its $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch has created not only the largest brewer in the world but also the largest one in China. “The sale of Anheuser-Busch to InBev will not alter Anheuser-Busch’s leading position in China, but it will dramatically strengthen InBev’s presence in the Chinese market,” Zhigang Tao, professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Business & Economics wrote in an e-mail. MORE