Digging down into the AB-InBev mashup

Taking a hand-off from Seen Through A Glass blogger Lew Bryson's comment/link on FaceBook: The inner workings of the InBev-Anheuser Busch merger that seems like it happened longer than two years ago.

Folks who love to hate Budweiser will probably do another "told-you-so" happy dance, given that AB was a market bully, and here in New Jersey, with a brewery in Newark, AB could get Trenton's attention faster/easier than home-state craft brewers (think distribution regulations).

But you can still have an appropriate measure of sympathy for the rank and file workers, suppliers and related industries who get screwed when giant corporations engage in mash-ups. When those giants borrow tens of billions of dollars to fuel a takeover, the knives come out to cut after the paperwork is signed. Tack on a global recession that still feels like the worst hangover ever, and you get an exponent to the 10th power on that cutting.

So read this. Then go support your local craft brewer.