Perhaps one of the world's most ironic beer brands - Pabst Blue Ribbon - is for sale. The asking price is reported by the Chicago Tribune to be close to $300 million. The company's present owner - the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation - is apparently being forced to sell the company due to an IRS regulation prohibiting charitable foundations from owning for-profit companies.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is already on the prowl for a buyer who would pay the asking price, but a pair of ad agencies are attempting to marshall the power of crowds in order to come up with enough money to make an offer themselves. The Ad Store and Forza Migliozzi would actually come reasonably well equipped to to run the business if they managed to get the money together. Pabst has disbanded all brewing activities and instead its thirty employees spend most of their time coming up with ad campaigns for its stable of brands.
On the surface, their attempt to "crowdsource" this is kind of impressive. It would be a real first to have a beer company owned by a diverse "crowd" with differing stakes in the company itself. It would be kind of - or perhaps - exactly like a publicly traded company. Wow, this stuff is revolutionary. What Iconoclasts these guys are!
The thing that is really iconoclastic is that these guys are going to actually try and raise the whole sum of money - in cash - before they make an offer. It would sure be nice if most acquisitions worked the way that these guys seem to think they do.
My favorite part is that upon visiting their website, we are invited to pledge money but given a vague understanding of what those monies will give us. A "certificate of ownership" that is "suitable for framing" will accompany a shipment of beer upon completion of the transaction.
It seems interesting, but at the end of the day it seems like a few ad guys got their heads together and figured out a slick way to beg the country for free money. Why lie, they want some beer!
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is already on the prowl for a buyer who would pay the asking price, but a pair of ad agencies are attempting to marshall the power of crowds in order to come up with enough money to make an offer themselves. The Ad Store and Forza Migliozzi would actually come reasonably well equipped to to run the business if they managed to get the money together. Pabst has disbanded all brewing activities and instead its thirty employees spend most of their time coming up with ad campaigns for its stable of brands.
On the surface, their attempt to "crowdsource" this is kind of impressive. It would be a real first to have a beer company owned by a diverse "crowd" with differing stakes in the company itself. It would be kind of - or perhaps - exactly like a publicly traded company. Wow, this stuff is revolutionary. What Iconoclasts these guys are!
The thing that is really iconoclastic is that these guys are going to actually try and raise the whole sum of money - in cash - before they make an offer. It would sure be nice if most acquisitions worked the way that these guys seem to think they do.
My favorite part is that upon visiting their website, we are invited to pledge money but given a vague understanding of what those monies will give us. A "certificate of ownership" that is "suitable for framing" will accompany a shipment of beer upon completion of the transaction.
It seems interesting, but at the end of the day it seems like a few ad guys got their heads together and figured out a slick way to beg the country for free money. Why lie, they want some beer!
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