AB InBev Finally Making Deal With US Over Modelo

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, which controls close to 19 percent of the globe’s beer market, has been trying to buy Mexico’s Grupo Modelo SAB, which owns close to 3 percent of the world’s beer market, for months now, only held up by the pesky US government, which thought the merger could mean too much power for AB InBev. 

The two sides have been talking since at least February about how a deal might be structured so that everybody gets what they want. And now, just days before the two sides were requested to report to a US District Judge, the word on the street is that they have come to an agreement, Bloomberg.com reports.

In order to have this merger occur, Modelo will have to “sell control of all its brands in the US, as well as a brewery it built in Piedras Negras, Mexico, to Constellation Brands (STZ), a winemaker and drink-distribution company,” Bloomberg reports. As part of the new agreement, InBev “gave up an option to buy back a stake in Crown Imports LLC, the US distributor of Corona and the other Modelo brands.” Crown will end up being owned by Constellation.Continue reading...

Reports that Harris Tweed will be downplaying the "Scottishness" of its brand—in the wake of a purported backlash against all things Scottish due to its release of the Lockerbie bomber—are apparently unfounded.

Brand boycotts can serve a specific purpose. Nestlé is the target of a massive boycott due to “more violations of the World Health Assembly marketing requirements for baby foods than any other company,” and even the popular POM Wonderful brand faced a PETA boycott over animal testing. But boycotting all the brands of a particular country for the purported sins of some government officials can often lead to “freedom fries”-like silliness.Continue reading...