ANALYSIS
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Takeover Could Leave Anheuser A Bit Skunked
Bottom-line culture of Brazil's InBev not always a smooth pour
By Kevin Spak
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Posted May 28, 08 4:10 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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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."