Anheuser-Busch InBev

As Anheuser-Busch InBev works to integrate recently acquired SABMiller, which it purchased last month for more than $100 billion, the company has announced a number of key executive changes. Marcel Marcondes, who previously served as a vice president of global marketing, will replace Jorn Socquet as the company’s vice president of marketing in the United States. Socquet has been appointed to a new global role as VP of marketing strategy and core brands, the company said via a press release.

In the same week that Anheuser-Busch InBev finalized its takeover of SABMiller, the world’s biggest beer company also announced the purchase of two major U.S. homebrew ingredient and supply companies.

Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller are officially drinking buddies. On Monday, A-B InBev closed the year-long merger saga, acquiring its one-time rival for $100 billion.

The Brewers Association will change the way it processes Great American Beer Festival applications in 2017 after the group made a critical error that forced festival organizers to revoke one popular Ohio brewery’s “Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year” award and give it to another brewery. Late Saturday evening — hours after the BA handed out 286 medals to 254 different breweries — festival organizers discovered their mistake and informed Fat Head’s Brewery that it had been stripped of its coveted “Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year” trophy, with the award going to Karl Strauss Brewing Company instead.

The shakeout of the MegaBrew deal will begin to be felt in Eastern Europe.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: the saga of MegaBrew is almost MegaThrough; Drizly launches its new online marketplace and Southern Oregon Brewing shuts its doors.

Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced it would acquire fast-growing hard seltzer producer Boathouse Beverage LLC., which makes and markets the SpikedSeltzer brand. A final acquisition price was not disclosed, but Boathouse co-founders Nick Shields and Dave Holmes described the deal as a 100 percent equity purchase.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has struck another high-end deal, this time purchasing the 225-year-old Belgium-based Brouwerij Bosteels. American financial news and services website TheStreet.com, citing Belgian press reports, pegged the deal at $225 million.

Labatt Breweries of Canada and Anheuser-Busch announced today the appointment of Marcelo Abud as Business Unit President, Canada. Marcelo most recently served as regional vice president in the Midwest U.S. for Anheuser-Busch, where his team grew market share and net revenue. Marcelo will replace Jan Craps, who has been named as zone president, Asia Pacific South.

The U.S. Department of Justice has officially closed its investigation into Anheuser-Busch InBev’s acquisition of Devils Backbone Brewing Company, according to a statement issued today by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Juan Arteaga. Citing conditions in a previously agreed upon settlement between A-B InBev and the DOJ — one that permits the world’s largest beer company to proceed with its acquisition of SABMiller — Arteaga said the “competitive implications of ABI’s acquisition of Devils Backbone are too uncertain at this time to warrant further investigation.”

Craft Brew Alliance, Inc. (CBA) (Nasdaq: BREW) and Anheuser-Busch (AB) announced today a series of new commercial agreements that expand and strengthen the companies’ long-term relationship and create new growth opportunities for both companies. The agreements include an amended and extended master distribution agreement, a new contract brewing arrangement, and a new international distribution agreement.

Craft Brew Alliance and Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced a new set of commercial agreements that will give the smaller CBA guaranteed distribution via A-B’s wholesalers in the U.S. through 2028 and expanded access to a variety of international markets as well as brewing capacity at many of the larger company’s 12 brewery locations. In a joint announcement, the two companies said the new arrangements would “expand and strengthen the companies’ long-term relationship and create new growth opportunities for both companies.”

The U.S Department of Justice today announced it has agreed to a settlement with Anheuser-Busch InBev that would permit the world’s largest beer company to “proceed with its acquisition” of the world’s second-largest beer company, SABMiller. In an effort to move forward with the merger, and as part of the consent decree, A-B InBev agreed to a number of conditions in the U.S., including the much anticipated divestiture of MillerCoors, as well as other requirements that could impact the way small and independent brewers and beer wholesalers operate.

The Beer Institute, a Washington D.C.-based trade association representing domestic and international beer companies, has launched a new initiative asking brewers large and small to display caloric and nutritional information on individual products, packaging and websites. Calling it the “Brewers Voluntary Disclosure Initiative,” the BI is encouraging its 44 brewer and importer members – as well as more than 4,000 non-member craft breweries — to voluntarily include a serving facts statement on their products, as well as disclose ingredients on either the label or secondary packaging by 2020.