InBev: Now Your Just Kidding Us Right?

From CNNMoney:

MILWAUKEE (AP) — August Busch IV, chief executive of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. will be paid nearly $10.4 million after the brewer is sold to InBev SA and $120,000 a month to consult for the new company through the end of 2013.

Terms of the consulting deal are currently being negotiated, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made Friday.

Busch, a member of the St. Louis-based brewer’s founding family, will also be eligible for an additional payment of $13.3 million on various change-in-control payments and benefits, the filing said.

Last month, the brewer of Bud Light and Budweiser announced it had agreed to be sold to InBev, the Belgium-based maker of Stella Artois, Beck’s and Bass. The deal is worth $52 billion.

I understand August Busch IV taking the money. What I don’t understand is why InBev would pay the CEO of an under performing company $10.4 million as a consultant.

Get this….

This putz is going to stay on and “advise the company on new products and business opportunities, review marketing programs, and meet with retailers, wholesalers and advertisers as part of his new duties.”

Here is my question…

WTF were you supposed to be doing when you were the CEO? Your new career sounds exactly like the effing job description of a CEO running an international beverage company. But who the hell am I to judge.

Mr. Brito, you over paid. You over paid for the company as a whole, but you had to in order to get the deal done. What you didn’t have to do is over-pay this stiff. You really could have gotten away with a lot less. But, you have your own shareholders that you are responsible to and there will be a day of reckoning for you too.

In the meantime, I recommend to all shareholders that you reject the deal. If for no other reason than you will get $1.25 billion if the deal falls through, which is better than what Auggie was returning. It’s a shame, there is an entire field of Busch’s rolling over in their graves.