Oops. The United States Department of Justice is filing a lawsuit to stop Anheuser-Busch InBev’s acquisition of Grupo Modelo (Corona). That could drag out the acquisition for quite sometime.
“If ABI fully owned and controlled Modelo, ABI would be able to increase beer prices to American consumers,” Bill Baer, the head of department’s antitrust division, said in a statement. “This lawsuit seeks to prevent ABI from eliminating Modelo as an important competitive force in the beer industry.”
Why? The contention is that the merger/purchase would eliminate the practically head to head competition between A-B InBev and Grupo Modelo. Especially between the Bud Light and Corona brands. Total revenue Grupo Modelo and Anheuser-Busch is over $45 Billion in 2012.
