(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Friday Night Beer Blog [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2022-07-08
Hi beer fans, happy Friday! Come have a cold one with us!
—
This week’s beer news is all about transactions, so let’s sing along: “Sell out with me tonight”.
-—
We heard this news from bsegel here at FNBB last week, here are full details from Sightlines: San Diego’s Stone Brewing has sold itself to Sapporo USA, which also owns San Francisco legend Anchor, for $165 million.
The sale represents a resolution to Stone’s multiyear search for a buye r as well as a definitive contradiction to the “anti-sell-out” stance of one of the industry’s most vocal brewery founders, Greg Koch… Koch… announced... that he will step away from the company “soon” after a nearly 30-year career… Stone’s sale to Sapporo comes seven years after private equity partner VMG i nvested $90 million in the brewery ; Beer Marketer’s Insights reported in 2020 that Stone’s exploration of a complete sale was driven by the timeline for VMG to cash out... The sale to Sapporo caps a rocky few years for Stone , which saw the company sell its vaunted Berlin brewery to BrewDog in 2019, l ay off more than 300 employee s in 2020, part ways with longtime CEO Dominic Engels the same year, and close its Napa taproom in 2021. When current CEO Maria Stipp was hired in September 2020, many in the industry assumed it was with the goal of guiding Stone through a sale. (Previously, as CEO of Lagunitas, Stipp had overseen the sale of that brewery to Heineken USA.) In addition to finding a buyer for Stone, Stipp also oversaw a redirection of the company toward a more accessible, less intimidating attitude embodied by a sunny new flagship product, Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager.
-—
A few weeks ago I wrote about Modern Times being sold to Maui Brewing, this may or may not still be on. From that original story:
Maui has entered what is known as a “stalking horse” bid; this means it has entered a purchase agreement but an auction must still take place in June. Maui’s offer represents the starting bid, and Maui would win by default if no other buyers place higher bids.
There were other bids, or at least one real one, but it fell through.
On June 27, Judge John C. Gastelum of the Superior Court of California in Orange County ruled that representatives of Brewery X are the winners of the auction to acquire Modern Times with a bid of $20 million.
I saw this “Brewery X” thing and wondered if it was an anonymous bid, but it’s a real brewery based in Anaheim CA. But not real enough to actually come up with the $20M, and the deal is off. Is Maui still obligated to buy? They don’t sound sure.
Modern Times CEO Jennifer Briggs on July 7 sent a press release announcing that Brewery X “elected not to complete the sale process” for Modern Times, and that backup bidder Maui Brewing would instead be acquiring the company for $15.3 million. Maui has not yet confirmed this news. Just minutes before Briggs’ announcement, Maui Brewing chief operating Scott Metzger told Good Beer Hunting: “While it is true that Brewery X did fall out as the buyer of Modern Times, there remains a lot of legal complications to work through as to who the ultimate buyer of Modern Times is.” Maui CEO Garrett Marrero also declined to confirm the sale, telling Good Beer Hunting: "We thought this deal had flown given the other two bidders showing how much they were willing to pay. It got dropped back in our lap as backup bidder and we were already onto other projects."
If there’s anything worse than selling out, it’s wanting to and not finding a buyer.
-—
I’m drinking All Day IPA and the only other thing cold is Hazy Little Thing. What are you drinking? Who’s brewing?
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/8/2109285/-Friday-Night-Beer-Blog
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
