business

Suntory to buy U.S. liquor maker Beam

12 Comments

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This is the difference between Japan and the USA. A Japanese company.... for the most part, can easily purchase a large American company and pretty much no one gets bent out of shape... but try the reverse and bloody hell ensues in Japan.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

This is the difference between Japan and the USA. A Japanese company.... for the most part, can easily purchase a large American company and pretty much no one gets bent out of shape... but try the reverse and bloody hell ensues in Japan.

Exactly. Every time.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

For the most part, any company can buy/merge with any other company as long as it doesn't threaten too many interests. American companies are selling out to foreign companies because it's a cash grab / hedge against foreign competition entering the market. Foreign companies are buying American firms because the risk of failure in buying an established brand pales against the risk of developing a new product to compete against established traditional products.

As for why more Japanese companies buy American companies than visa versa, part of it has to deal with money management. US firms are normally willing to take more risks and this can lead to being strapped for cash. On the Japanese side, most companies shy away from any form of outsider involvement, so a Japanese company will normally seek a partnership with a domestic rival, followed by a merger with a domestic rival, and at worse a complete buyout by a domestic rival. Most companies in Japan rarely get to this last stage (I believe Sharp was the latest and Samsung only got 3% of total company.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

These new owners can't be any worse than their US-based counterparts, who were so greedy they put profit over tradition and tried to lower the alcohol content of the famous Maker's Mark brand rather than limit sales of the classic recipe. I (along with thousands of others) still boycott the Maker's Mark brand because of this.

New Owners: don't mess with the time-proven original recipes of the classic whisky brands or else!!

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

They should have bought Knob Creek as well. Much better than Beam or Makers

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I think people sometimes forget that the top-end whiskeys from Suntory--Yamazaki and Hibiki--are highly-rated and compare very well even with the best blended and single-malt whiskeys from Scotland and Ireland. As such, Suntory at least knows what is a quality whiskey, and Suntory's resources could help Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, and other Beam, Inc. bourbon whiskeys.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

They should have bought Knob Creek as well. Much better than Beam or Makers

They have. All marques owned by Beam are now Suntory's. One interesting part of this deal (for lovers of Japanese whiskey) is that it gives Suntory access to 10s of thousands of aged Bourbon casks.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

These new owners can't be any worse than their US-based counterparts, who were so greedy they put profit over tradition and tried to lower the alcohol content of the famous Maker's Mark brand rather than limit sales of the classic recipe. I (along with thousands of others) still boycott the Maker's Mark brand because of this.

I'm guessing you've never heard of "New Coke."

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I can see the anti-Japan crowd is here. If Americans can't run America then I'd much rather have the Japanese than say, the Communist Chinese or the Wahabi Saudi Arabians.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Well either way.... Japan only hurts itself by not allowing foreign firms to buy their inefficient companies and turn them around, dismantle and sell them piece by piece, or make them a better fit. All they end up doing is diluting their overall competitiveness. The rest of the world actually should be thankful.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@danalawton1@yahoo.com

"The rest of the world actually should be thankful."

Funny how you sound so bitter about it in every post when you say the world should be thankful. And those Japanese companies (that don't have competitiveness according to you) have enough cash $16B to buy a successful company like Jim Beam

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

@ Hide. Believe me Hide... I'm not bitter one bit about Jim Beam being bought by Suntory. Heck... the could buy the Statue of Liberty and it would not bother me. I do however take exception when a U.S. company cannot buy a Japanese company as easily as Suntory bought Jim Beam. That is it...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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