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...

You don’t name your company Skinnygirl if you’re not willing to push a few buttons and the cocktail manufacturer looks ready to do just that with its new “Drink Like a Lady” advertising campaign, which debuted this week.

The brand's first national commercial, now running on cable channels as Bravo, HGTV, Food Network and E!, notes a few new offerings under the Skinnygirl banner such as Skinnygirl Vodka with Natural Flavors, Skinnygirl The Wine Collection and new ready-to-serve cocktails, according to a press release from Beam, which acquired reality TV star Bethenny Frankel's cocktail brand last year.

“The Skinnygirl Cocktails' new ‘Drink Like A Lady’ campaign is about understanding women. They know what they want, how they like it, and the art of socializing should be on their own terms. They've earned it!" says Frankel. The campaign is all about women creating their own social rules and setting their own agendas, which is something Frankel, one of Bravo's five original Real Housewives of New York City, is very familiar with.

Bethenny Frankel may have been a housewife a few years back when she starred in the reality shows Real Housewives of New York and Bethenny Getting Married, but she got hot and heavy into business now with her Skinnygirl cocktail brand before selling it to Beam last year.

Now she must be pretty proud mama of the business she founded, which is expanding into cleanses and workouts to become a lifestyle brand — the drinks company was the fastest-growing brand of spirits in America last year, according to Technomic research (via MSNBC).

The company had a .388 percent increase in sales last year, Technomic reports. Skinnygirl started out by just selling a premixed margarita and now has "four lines of premixed cocktails with four flavored vodkas and three wines debuting nationally this month."Continue reading...

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They say to never mix business with pleasure but it’s been working for the folks at Jim Beam since 1795.

It’s been working so well, in fact, that Fortune Brands ditched its non-liquor-related businesses and changed its name to Beam Inc. on Tuesday, when it began trading under its new moniker on the New York Stock Exchange.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Beam president and CEO Matt Shattock celebrated the change Monday in the Bluegrass State, where the company will build “the company’s global research and development center,” according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

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