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An iconic American beer turns European

“The King of Beers will be serving a new master,” said Jeremy Bogaisky in Forbes.com. Anheuser-Busch, the 150-year-old St. Louis–based maker of Budweiser and Bud Lite, agreed this week to a takeover by Belgium’s InBev, brewer of Stella Artois and Beck’s. The sale will create the world’s largest brewer and the third largest consumer-products company. InBev will pay about $52 billion, or $70 a share, for all of Anheuser-Busch’s outstanding stock. InBev sweetened the price after Anheuser-Busch rejected its original $65-a-share offer.

InBev CEO Carlos Brito assured Americans that he had no plans to change the things they find so “endearing” about Anheuser-Busch, said Jeremiah McWilliams and Jeffrey Tomich in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The company’s flagship brewery in St. Louis will still conduct tours—with free beer at the end—and its Clydesdale horses will still pull an old-fashioned beer truck in parades. But Brito’s assurances haven’t quelled “rampant nervousness” within Anheuser-Busch about “InBev’s true intentions.” Brito is known as a “ruthless” cost-cutter, and most analysts expect large-scale layoffs as soon as the merger is completed.

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Retailing: A highflier crashes to earth

Clothing chain Steve & Barry’s, “regarded just weeks ago as one of America’s fast-growing retailers,” filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, said Jeffrey McCracken and Peter Lattman in The Wall Street Journal. The filing deals a heavy blow to America’s already-reeling shopping-mall owners, who paid millions to Steve & Barry’s to get it to occupy store spaces vacated by big department stores. Those payments “fueled the company’s runaway growth,” company insiders said. ��When the payments slowed, Steve & Barry’s collapsed.”

Gadgets: iPhone buyers get a busy signal

Last week’s rollout of Apple’s latest iPhone might have been too successful, said the Associated Press. Apple sold 1 million of the feature-laden iPhone 3Gs in the first three days following its release, “but the launch was plagued with software problems” that blocked many buyers from activating their new phones. Apple partner AT&T blamed overloaded servers at Apple. The computer company has sold 6 million iPhones since they were introduced last year, and aims to sell 10 million by year-end.

Aviation: Engines take center stage

Fuel-efficient jet engines are the stars of this week’s Farnborough air show in England, said J. Lynn Lunsford and Daniel Michaels in The Wall Street Journal. Archrivals General Electric and Pratt & Whitney both are touting their engines as the answer to high fuel costs. Pratt & Whitney is showing off “a novel engine that promises to burn 12 percent less fuel than today’s best engines.” But GE says its engine will perform at least as well, with fewer moving parts. “Game on,” said GE Aviation President David Joyce.

Takeovers: Microsoft and Yahoo at it again

In the latest twist in Microsoft’s pursuit of Yahoo, the software giant and investor Carl Icahn last week offered $1 billion, plus a guaranteed annual payment of at least $2.3 billion for five years, for Yahoo’s search business, said Chris Nuttall in the Financial Times. Yahoo brusquely rejected the offer and ridiculed Microsoft’s “erratic” tactics. Microsoft and Icahn didn’t take the rejection lying down. They’re already talking with big Yahoo shareholders, lobbying them to oust the board and replace it with directors amenable to a deal.