Legal News

Whaaaassuup?! Skadden?s Schnell, Greenberg Deliver A-B to InBev

By Dan Slater

Over the weekend, the WSJ reported on the torment of Jordan Moore, a concrete worker in St. Louis who bemoaned the then-potential sale of his “beloved Budweiser” to Belgian-Brazilian beer-maker InBev — so much, in fact, that he scrapped his plan to tattoo the Bud logo on his rib cage. “I’ll tell you one thing,” said Moore, “if Budweiser is made by a different country, I don’t drink Budweiser anymore. I’ll go back to Wild Turkey.” (Wild Turkey, the article notes, is owned by French company Pernod Ricard.)

Back to bourbon, Mr. Moore. Over the weekend, Anheuser-Busch agreed to be acquired by InBev for about $52 billion, or $70-a-share, $5 more than InBev’s original cash offer. Here are reports from the WSJ and NYT.

Skadden — which on behalf of A-B filed a suit against InBev last week, alleging that InBev’s attempt to acquire A-B amounted to “an illegal plan and scheme” — also handled the deal work. Skadden’s Paul Schnell (pictured, left), who runs the firm’s health-care practice, teamed up with Thomas Greenberg. (Notably, Schnell, according to an article from The Deal, has also been cultivating a Brazil practice for many years. Last year, he did the $3.7 billion IPO of Bovespa Holding, owner of the São Paulo stock exchange.)

On InBev’s side were Sullivan & Cromwell’s Frank Aquila (pictured, right), George Sampas, James Morphy and George White.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 14, 2008 (boomark / email).