Justin Fox, Columnist

Beer's Decline Inspires a Merger

One megabrewer might have what it takes to survive.

September 16, 2015 at 8:02 PM UTC

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business, economics and other topics involving charts. A former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, he is author of “The Myth of the Rational Market.”

In beer is truth.
Photographer: Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images

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The biggest beer maker in the world wants to buy the second-biggest. The second-biggest appears to be game. There are antitrust concerns, especially in the U.S., but also obvious ways to assuage them. At the moment it looks like this merger stands a good chance of happening.

But why is it happening? Here’s one key reason: