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.

InBev Bolting on Buds Workers

Well that didn’t take long. I wonder if Carlos Brito had his fingers crossed when he told everyone that he wasn’t going to change anything after InBev completed its merger with Anheuser-Busch. Missed the headline? Here goes;

Budweiser to reduce salaried work force by 10 to 15 per cent

So they call them buyouts huh?  It’s a salary swap if ever there was one. Offer your older (more expensive) employees a buyout and replace them with a fresh (cheaper) crop of 18 year olds that just graduated. Only employees 55 years old or older as of December 31, 2008 are eligible.

The group totals about 360 people who have spent their lives making and packing, shipping and selling Budweiser. You know, the American beer. The King of Beers reports the extermination could cost up to $500 million over the next two quarters with $2.7 million going to CFO W. Randolph Baker. You didn’t think InBev was going to keep Busch’s money man did you?

Budweiser Inbev Deal - Mr. Brito Goes To Washington

The head of InBev was in Washington D.C. last week to garner support for his company’s $65 dollar a share hostile bid for Anheuser-Busch. I’ll grant you that Mr. Brito has a significant uphill climb ahead of him. In fact, I wrote about the Budweiser Inbev merger when the news broke and I was dead set against this takeover and still am.

But this isn’t a rant about the merger, this is a rant about respect. It’s about little things that on the world stage, mean a lot. It’s the little things that have a cumulative effect on world wide events. It’s the “death by a thousand needles” concept. The specific topic I am referencing is the meeting between Mr. Brito and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Here in lies the problem

According to people at the meeting, Sen. McCaskill was pretty pissy from jump street, being a serious opponent of this deal. As the two sat down, she offered Mr. Brito a beer; three different Anheuser-Busch beverages to be exact, while offering him none of the ten world famous beers his company markets.

Now, don’t get me wrong, as the representative for the people of the great state of Missouri, Sen. McCaskill has some real concerns about this takeover, but to treat a possible constituent the way she did was wrong. Why wouldn’t she offer him an Anheuser-Busch product and while she herself imbibe a Stella Artois or a Becks?

What’s My Point?

You have to show this guy some respect. His is still the CEO of a worldwide organization that if things go according to plan, could wind up being one of the largest employers in your state. So call me crazy, but maybe you don’t make this guy jump through hoops or disrespect him.

Besides, Mr. Brito doesn’t really need to be doing the dog and pony show for this deal to get approved anyway. If he has the balls to pull the trigger on a hostile bid for Anheuser-Bush (and I still think it’s a mistake) he won’t need to worry about any regulatory approval from any branch of government here in the United States….Not if Microsoft wants to sell another copy of Vista in Europe anytime soon!

So, if the Budweiser InBev deal is going to happen, it’s not going to be on the back of Sen. McCaskill, so why give her the chance to eff it up? Get out of the way Senator and let the law of natural selection take it’s course….but thanks for sticking your nose in it….troublemaker!