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Takeover Could Leave Anheuser A Bit Skunked

Posted May 28, 08 4:10 PM CDT in Business 

(Newser) – Anheuser-Busch executives are surely examining the fate of Interbrew, the Belgian company swallowed in 2004 by InBev, the Brazilian juggernaut reportedly preparing to grab the iconic US brewer, the Wall Street Journal reports. InBev's locker-room, bottom-line-oriented corporate culture has quickly replaced beer-loving Belgians with Brazilian execs, a situation that would seem certain to fly in the face of A-B's tradition.

InBev faces several moral-harassment suits at home in Brazil, and a labor dispute at a plant in Canada (where InBev now brews iconic Labatt) had a union spokesman complaining of "a bunch of Brazilian bullies who think they can teach our workers a lesson." InBev, meanwhile, says Interbrew was primed for change, and that other hiccups were "isolated incidents."

Source Wall Street Journal

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Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (R) and Inbev CEO Carlos Brito (L) at the Inbev Brewery on November 30, 2006 in Leuven, Belgium.   (Getty Images)
InBev CEO Carlos Brito addresses the media after the annual Inbev shareholders meeting in an hotel in Brussels, Tuesday, April 29, 2008.   (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Stell Artois is InBev's flagship brew. But while it originated in Belgium, InBev's corporate culture is distinctly Brazilian.   (Getty Images)
Inbev CEO Carlos Brito drinks at the Inbev Brewery on November 30, 2006 in Leuven, Belgium.   (Getty Images)
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