Fast Talk

I've tasted beer throughout the world. I hope some of the InBev know-how gets infused into the Bud brand beers. I don't think I've had a Bud since my college years when I didn't know any better. Having tasted a vast quantity of beers, Bud is currently my absolute last choice.

@Chheang Yang - While Bud may be your last choice, I'd say the majority of habitual Bud/Bud Light drinkers do not have the sort of worldly palate that you have cultivated. Big locales of Bud sales (sporting events, non-urban areas, and colleges, to name a few) will probably not see a big change in sales. There's a fairly inelastic demand for cheap beer in this country, and I don't think that InBev's purchase is going to change that anytime soon. Now, if InBev replaced Bud Light with a brand of non-alcoholic wine coolers, then we'd start to see some problems.

Busch is such an iconic American brand that it certainly won't help their image if they get bought out by a foreign company. How much it will hurt them remains to be seen. Your average Bud Ice drinker doesn't regularly peruse the business section so they may not find out about this. If and when they do though, they will care, but maybe not enough to stop buying the beer. I mean no one is boycotting WalMart because 80% of its products are made in China. I just don't think that the movement to 'buy American' is all that strong anymore.

As far as consumers are concerned, I doubt that they will even realize that their is a new owner. It will be the same as when Coca-Cola purchased Vitamin Water.

The product and brand are interconnected, if InBev tampers with the product, expect to see consequences to the brand.

If or when that happens, we've got plenty of tasty Molson Canadian up North for our thirsty and carnivorous brethren down South.

It has been and it will be....sort of like Levi's.

First, AB's brand, or AB's brands? for the former: maybe, but that's a Wall Street concern, not a Walmart concern. For the latter: no, the change in ownership only will impact AB's brands if InBev messes with the product and the brands delivery on its consumers' expectations. No change in product, no major changes indentity, no major change in sales or share.

What "if"? This morning on NPR, there was an announcement that it's a done deal & stockholders will get $70 cash / share. I don't know if the brand will be damaged, but certainly the US's business base will be. I detest alcohol - it's a fine disinfectant, but it is also a poison which has cost uncountable amounts of dollars and heartache to every culture on earth. Just the same, AB was a major US enterprise, and now it will be just another foreign-owned company operating in the US, and I think that's bad.

Yes. I'm a beer snob, not the uberest of beer snobs, but I still enjoy an iced-cold Bud on a hot day, and I actually LIKE Michelob Light if one has calorie-concious folks in the mix. But, essentially, America has no beer as Canadia, SA, and Belgium have taken over all the major brands; there's a hole for a mid-major to step up and dominate. This happens a lot when a popular regional bank is taken over by a much larger bank; folks flock to another larger regional bank. So it will be. Sure, the big dog will still do well, but this is a boon for somebody... if they step up. It may be the moment for Coors to put some major spin on their North American ownership. Had Coors not merged with Molson; it'd be a spectacular stock to own.

Yes. Bud is an American icon. I personally would not continue to purchase it.