9:00 PM Sat, Jun 07, 2008 | Permalink
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Want to get 50,000 page views on a web site fast? Follow the lead of the anonymous protesters behind the SaveBudweiser.com site.
Their petition drive protesting the would-be takeover of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch by Belgium-based InBev has more than 24,000 signatures.
"Keep it in St. Louis and family owned," writes Donna Reavis, who was 149th to sign the petition.
You might not know this, but the largest shareholder of BUD stock is Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings (Europe), owner of more than $2 billion dollars in stock, more than six percent of the company, as of March 31, 2008.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns about five percent, more than 35 million shares.
To put that in perspective, August A. Busch III owned 1.4 million shares as of May 1, and August A. Busch IV owned a little more than 113,000 shares.
Big investment groups control some of the largest blocks of stock: State Street, Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, Bank of America and U.S. Bank. Records show the seven top holders control nearly 24 percent of the stock.
Larry Meyers, the 10,872nd person to sign the SaveBudweiser.com petition, is more on track with his thoughts, writing: "Please don't move. Keep a St. Louis tradition a St. Louis tradition."
The question is whether this community's most famous corporate headquarters will join McDonnell-Douglas and Ralston as casualties of a changing economy.
"As a St. Louis native, AB has been an asset to our community for 150 years," writes Hamilton Callison, the 7847th signer of the petition. "Despite the challeneges it faces with growth, it is still one of the most profitable beverage companies in the world. They produce the most popular American Beer and have a market share nearly twice that of any one competitor. If this company is bought and absorbed, the value of the brand will never be the same. Not only will many hard working Americans lose their jobs through agressive cost cutting, but the slash and burn method will cause InBev to see a rapid evaporation in the value of their purchase."
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