USA: Missouri Governor Matt Blunt says state should intervene if InBev tries to buy Anheuser Busch

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has said he is not opposed to the idea of some form of state intervention to stave off the sale of St. Louis-based Anheuser Busch to the Belgian company InBev, KWMU reported June 10. Market experts say that politics play a significant role in mergers of this size.

Governor Blunt admits that there is no mechanism readily at hand to block the sale of Anheuser-Busch.

Bill Finnie is a former A-B marketing executive, now a professor of Strategy at Washington University.

He said St. Louis' political power structure has been asleep at the wheel as one headquarters after another has left the area.

"Mayor Slay and the business community of St. Louis can look at what do we need to do differently," Finnie said. "This is a wake-up call. This is the worst of all the headquarters that we could have lost."

Finnie points to a lack of cooperation between the city and St. Louis County as the primary reason for industrial decline.

Most of A-B's shareholders are not local and would miss out on billions in profits if the sale does not go through.

10 June, 2008