Dethroning the King: The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon by Julie MacIntosh

Author:Julie MacIntosh [MacIntosh, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Business & Economics, Corporate & Business History, General
ISBN: 9781118202821
Google: DMF8m96jvhMC
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2011-09-20T00:05:22.513550+00:00

Money and control weren’t the only thing that drove Anheuser-Busch and Modelo to the wrestling mats. The more time the two companies’ executives and family members spent with each other over the years, the less it seemed they could stomach the personal interaction. Some executives in St. Louis felt Modelo wasn’t trustworthy—that they didn’t play by the same rules of business conduct Anheuser did. Modelo insiders, meanwhile, saw the Busches, and August III in particular, as patronizing and rude.

“August III they despised,” said Harry Schuhmacher. “He was just so arrogant.”

One particular tale that reared its head during the InBev takeover battle was legendary at both companies. In the early 1990s, when the two rivals were still negotiating their original deal, a group of Anheuser-Busch executives flew down with their spouses to Cabo San Lucas, a vacation spot on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, for a weekend of deep-sea sport fishing. The group convened at the docks one morning with Modelo’s top executives and their wives, packed what they needed into a couple of fishing boats, and motored off with their hired crews in search of marlin.

August III’s boat hooked a good-sized fish not long after setting out, and Valentín Díez, a senior vice president of Modelo at the time, took the chair and began fighting to reel in the fish. More than an hour later, August III glanced over at Valentín, who was covered in sweat and still laboring behind the reel, and suggested that someone else should relieve him for a while. Then The Third’s cell phone rang, and he turned away to answer the call, rejoining the group moments later to announce that he had to return to the United States for an urgent matter. Something clearly ranked higher on his list of priorities than the opportunity to bond out at sea with his potential Mexican business partners.

The Third’s boat mates agreed to turn around and head in, but their captain wanted to hand off the rod—and the valuable marlin still attached to it—to another boat first.

“Out here?” The Third said quizzically. “No way. That’s too dangerous with two boats out here in the open sea, rocking and rolling the way we are!” The boats were indeed caught in some sizable swells, and several of the women on August III’s boat, including his wife, Ginny, had been struggling to keep their breakfast down since they first tossed in their fishing lines. The wife of Pablo Aramburuzabala, a key Modelo controlling shareholder, had been up on the bridge with the boat’s captain for 40 minutes, lobbying half-jokingly for the group to cut its lines and turn back to dry land.

It quickly became clear that August III and the captain were threatening a standoff. The captain wasn’t ready to give up on his marlin, nor was he thrilled about having his judgment overruled by a brusque, ice-eyed American while out at sea. It was safe to say that the captain hadn’t met many men the likes of August III.

The Third turned to Purnell and quietly instructed him to take hold of the fishing rod and yank on it, hard.

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