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Julie MacIntosh

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Dethroning the King: The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon Kindle Edition

by Julie MacIntosh (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 436 ratings

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How the King of Beers collapsed without a fight and what it means for America's place in the post-Recession world

How did InBev, a Belgian company controlled by Brazilians, take over one of America's most beloved brands with scarcely a whimper of opposition? Chalk it up to perfect timing—and some unexpected help from powerful members of the Busch dynasty, the very family that had run the company for more than a century. In Dethroning the King, Julie MacIntosh, the award-winning financial journalist who led coverage of the takeover for the Financial Times, details how the drama that unfolded at Anheuser-Busch in 2008 went largely unreported as the world tumbled into a global economic crisis second only to the Great Depression. Today, as the dust settles, questions are being asked about how the "King of Beers" was so easily captured by a foreign corporation, and whether the company's fall mirrors America's dwindling financial and political dominance as a nation.

Discusses how the takeover of Anheuser-Busch will be seen as a defining moment in U.S. business history
Reveals the critical missteps taken by the Busch family and the Anheuser-Busch board
Argues that Anheuser-Busch had a chance to save itself from InBev's clutches, but infighting and dysfunctionality behind the scenes forced it to capitulate

From America's heartland to the European continent to Brazil, Dethroning the King is the ultimate corporate caper and a fascinating case study that's both wide reaching and profound.

Print length

409 pages
Language

English
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Publisher

Wiley
Publication date

September 21, 2011
File size

1834 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"Dethroning the King makes for a fine yarn with a cautionary message about American business in the age of globalization."
The New York Times

Praise for
DETHRONING THE KING

"Julie MacIntosh has given us not just an anatomy of a deal, but an anatomy of a company, a community, and a family. From cover to cover, it is a compelling story bound to be acclaimed as the business book of the year."
MARTIN LIPTON, Founding Partner of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

"This book is not just a terrific read about the decline of a storied American company. It is also an acute analysis that conveys important lessons about the ills of American business in general."
BRUCE GREENWALD, Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management, Columbia Business School

"Dethroning the King is hard to put downit's a must-read. Julie MacIntosh vividly captures the many twists and turns of this company's long history and the fascinating people who shaped its development."
NELSON PELTZ, CEO and Founding Partner, Trian Fund Management, LP

"In this powerful story, Julie MacIntosh does a great job of giving life to an epoch corporate event and the story of a legendary family. The parallels with today's ongoing corporate conflicts are many. The tale is fascinating and remains relevant."
ROBERT F. GREENHILL, Founder and Chairman, Greenhill & Co., Inc.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

"Dethroning the King makes for a fine yarn with a cautionary message about American business in the age of globalization."
The New York Times

Praise for
DETHRONING THE KING

"Julie MacIntosh has given us not just an anatomy of a deal, but an anatomy of a company, a community, and a family. From cover to cover, it is a compelling story bound to be acclaimed as the business book of the year."
MARTIN LIPTON, Founding Partner of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

"This book is not just a terrific read about the decline of a storied American company. It is also an acute analysis that conveys important lessons about the ills of American business in general."
BRUCE GREENWALD, Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management, Columbia Business School

"Dethroning the King is hard to put downit's a must-read. Julie MacIntosh vividly captures the many twists and turns of this company's long history and the fascinating people who shaped its development."
NELSON PELTZ, CEO and Founding Partner, Trian Fund Management, LP

"In this powerful story, Julie MacIntosh does a great job of giving life to an epoch corporate event and the story of a legendary family. The parallels with today's ongoing corporate conflicts are many. The tale is fascinating and remains relevant."
ROBERT F. GREENHILL, Founder and Chairman, Greenhill & Co., Inc.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005UQLEJ0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (September 21, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 21, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1834 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 409 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #392,512 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #29 in Business Consolidations & Mergers
- #51 in Restaurant & Food Industry (Kindle Store)
- #108 in Consolidation & Merger

Customer Reviews:
4.4 436 ratings

About the author

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Julie MacIntosh

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Julie MacIntosh, the author of Dethroning the King and an award-winning journalist, led the Financial Times' coverage of the takeover of Anheuser-Busch as its U.S. Mergers and Acquisitions Correspondent. She also covered the fall of Lehman Brothers, the government takeovers of AIG, General Motors and Chrysler, and the near-collapse of the global banking system while on the mergers beat at the FT and, before that, wrote as a columnist for the newspaper's highly influential Lex opinion page.

MacIntosh, who is now based in Los Angeles, has also worked as a reporter and correspondent for Reuters, and in 2003 was named one of NewsBios' "Top 30 Business Journalists Under 30." She won a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in business journalism at Columbia University and earned a master's in journalism from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. After receiving the competitive Wiegers Fellowship, she then earned a master's of business administration from Columbia's Graduate School of Business. She received her undergraduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

436 global ratings

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Rich T.

Interesting Book, lots of details of takeover

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2023

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The used book came in excellent condition. The book details how August III, the man who grew the company to the largest brewery, gave in to InBev.

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Robert G. Heinritz, Jr.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2011

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For those with no direct knowledge of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company, I recommend first reading the 1991 book, UNDER THE INFLUENCE: The Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty, by Peter Hernon & Terry Ganey. Adolphus Busch, the company's founder, was a visionary, and in his own way the equal of America's Victorian Age captains of industry. Like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie; Adolphus and his Busch-successors broke the rules, or made entirely new rules to create, maintain, and strengthen a national industry - using their wealth to create a family-dynasty. The Busch family, for all their well-deserved arrogance, ran a magnificent race for over 150 years.
In DETHRONING THE KING: The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon, Julie Macintosh provides us with a nearly Biblical account of that arrogance; and the lesson that ultimately all powers, all fame, and all life is temporary. I do not make this judgement lightly. My father spent his entire working-life as an electrician and trouble-shooter at Anheuser-Busch's 9th Street Electric Shop. I remember from my earliest childhood days smelling the good brewery smells, and seeing parts of the St. Louis brewery with my Dad that were never on the tourist-tours. I spent several years there myself reporting to one of the senior Vice Presidents at One Busch Place. I worked under the pressure and uncomfortable glare of August Busch III, who we all admired and feared. I remember flying first-class for all business-travel, and staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, the Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, or the Fairmont in San Francisto. There was great pride among the executives. We were in a very competitive industry, we worked very hard, and we were winning! August IV was a good-looking 18-22 year old playboy, who we occasionally saw visiting the ninth-floor of One Busch Place, or piloting a hot-rod boat from the A-B executive-retreat on Lake of the Ozarks. Anheuser-Busch was a public company, but it existed because of the Busch family. Even in the 1980's there were strategies to prevent hostile takeovers.
When in late-Summer of 2008, nearly 20-years after I departed A-B, I first heard of the attempted buy-out by InBev, a company I'd never heard of, I didn't think it possible. In what seemed a shockingly-short time, I learned Anheuser-Busch had been sold! How could this happen?
Julie Macintosh has done a magnificent job of detailing, on nearly a day-by-day basis, how this came about. I can't personally vouch for the truthfulness of all the details as she tells them, but as one who had warm feelings and many fine memories of Anheuser-Busch, and what it meant to St. Louis and America, the story she tells rings true. Ms. Macintosh tells a story that could be applicable to all great people, all great organizations, and all great empires. A great read!

4 people found this helpful

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Andy Orrock

'Shakespearean...I just haven't decided which play.'

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2012

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The hallmark of this excellent book is equal parts the intricate, detail-laden reporting that author Julie MacIntosh has painstakingly compiled and the masterful profiles she's written of this takeover tale's main protagonists. And, to do any book on this subject justice, the profiles you need to nail are those of A-B's father and son CEOs, August Busch III and August Busch IV, known indelibly as the 'The Third' and 'The Fourth.'

What's she's put down on paper here is a fascinating take on those two. As one close source says to MacIntosh, what transpired between those two is 'Shakespearean...I just haven't decided which play.' Conventional wisdom would write a 'Crazy and Lazy' saga (as the two were known on Wall Street): that a mercurial, hyper-focused Third drove A-B to greatness and a detached, debauched Fourth let it fall quickly into InBev's hands.

The truth is far more complicated. MacIntosh makes a compelling case that is was the Third's insular nature and megalomaniacal tendencies that led him to shun deals, go it alone and focus almost entirely on domestic dominance. Meanwhile, the beer world shifted under his feet: two forward-thinking international giants - SAB/Miller and InBev - emerged right in front of his dismissive eyes. By the time The Fourth took the reins, A-B's goose was cooked. They were just the last ones to know it.

I listened to the unabridged audio version of this book. It was fantastic! I highly recommend Joyce Bean's excellent narration. It is 13.5 hours of pure enjoyment. It's quite a feat to have a female narrator do justice to what is effectively an all-male tale - it's a book filled with quote after quote (both attributed and juicy off-the-record stuff) in alpha male voices. Bean drops her voice an octave to deliver those words, punctuating them with a supercilious air while embodying the words of The Third. Well done.

4 people found this helpful

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Cliente de Amazon

Mal encuadernado con las hojas sueltas

Reviewed in Mexico on December 25, 2023

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Mrs A Fraser

A very interesting and thoughtful book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2018

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A very interesting summary on the takeover of AB

John Singer

A good insight into an absent cost culture

Reviewed in Germany on May 10, 2017

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A great Insight into a wasteful company. A thing that's more common than you might think.
Only four stars because it's good but not great.

Thiago Polatti

Avaliação

Reviewed in Brazil on August 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

The book is fantastic. It not only tells the story and history that was behind Anheuser-Bush, but also how it was acquired by InBev.
For those who enjoy reading business case books, I highly recommend it.

I also recommend reading "Sonho Grande" (I believe the name of the book in English would be Big Dreams). The book tells the story on the three Brazilian business man who were behind the Anheuser-Bush acquisition.

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