A-B to purchase Elysian

[sprague11]

My FB news feed blew up after that commercial. So much butthurt!

[Kel Varnsen]

So I am curious what people think about this. If you are Elysian and you want to sell, who could you sell to other than someone huge like A-B (assuming you don't have family or employees who could take over)? Not sure how much they sold for but for reference Goose Island sold for around 40 million dollars. Even if Elysian was worth a quarter of that, there aren't many people or companies out there who could acquire a 10 million dollar brewing company, and then be capable of running it.

[Belgian]

Corporate beer sucks. So now self-loathing is the new corporate? 'We hollow out your economy and your culture for short-term investor gains, but boy do we hate taking your money. WE SUCK!"

[jcc]

So I am curious what people think about this. If you are Elysian and you want to sell, who could you sell to other than someone huge like A-B (assuming you don't have family or employees who could take over)? Not sure how much they sold for but for reference Goose Island sold for around 40 million dollars. Even if Elysian was worth a quarter of that, there aren't many people or companies out there who could acquire a 10 million dollar brewing company, and then be capable of running it.

This article has what seems to me to be a reasonably good explanation of what went down.

http://www.brewbound.com/news/inside-b- ... an-brewing

I imagine these sorts of thoughts go through many small brewery owners minds when they start considering moving on from the day to day running of their business or if the business gets too big for what they want to do.

Did Elysian make the right choice? Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell. It does sound like they had had more options than ABInbev though. There are other moneyed folks out there looking to buy, whether they are the right option obviously is up to the person selling the business.

[MetalHead]

Pretty good cut up of that superbowl add. http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2 ... pocri.html

[MatttthewGeorge]

Budweiser Super Bowl Spoof Ad: http://youtu.be/VCgkTeuJkR8

For only 2 days since the original Bud ad this does come across a bit rushed, but still spot on nonetheless.

[Kel Varnsen]

This article has what seems to me to be a reasonably good explanation of what went down.

http://www.brewbound.com/news/inside-b- ... an-brewing

I imagine these sorts of thoughts go through many small brewery owners minds when they start considering moving on from the day to day running of their business or if the business gets too big for what they want to do.

Did Elysian make the right choice? Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell. It does sound like they had had more options than ABInbev though. There are other moneyed folks out there looking to buy, whether they are the right option obviously is up to the person selling the business.

Interesting article. I suppose the are right, Elysian could just as easily have sold to a private equity firm. But that has it's own level of risk. That firm might have no idea how to distribute and sell beer (which A-B absolutely does) so they might fail and run your company into the ground. Or they might bring in a House of Lies style management firm to clean up your company, lay off a bunch of people so the books look better and then sell it to A-B themselves, so you might as well have just sold to them in the first place. The thing is once you sell you have no control so I can see the appeal of selling to a big beer company since there would probably be a lot more stability.

Also on a side note I hate the whole part of the whole brewers association/craft beer rules where a brewery is not defined as a craft brewer if more than 25% of the ownership is “alcohol beverage industry member that is not themselves a craft brewery". So if AB owns your brewery you are not a craft brewer. But if GE or JP Morgan or Coca-Cola or even Google owns your brewery you can still be a craft brewery. It makes no sense other than just trying to say, if you are owned by one of these big guys you are out. In which case why not skip the rules and just post a list of companies that can't be members.

[Ale's What Cures Ya]

I thought that commercial was hilarious, especially the dress and mannerisms of the craft beer drinkers.

The waxed and curled tips on the one guy's moustache was a great touch. Anyone that wears a moustache like that deserves to be skewered in a multi-million dollar ad.

[sprague11]

You know, all he needs is some plaid and either thick framed glasses or a monocle and we're all set!