Thursday, May 29, 2008

So Anheiser-Busch may go Belgian. Any problems with that?

Whether it happens or not, it is inevitable that more US icons of business will fall into foreign hands. This is inevitable and desirable if we believe that large companies can do things smaller ones cannot. If we do believe this (and remember that large companies die or are broken up every day), then inevitably, the majority of these will not be US ones. The US may have the largest in some industries, but in other businesses, other countries will house the largest - and house is the operative word. Increasingly, these companies are becoming genuinely multi-national. The new CEO of Vodaphone, a British company, is Italian, and he replaces an Indian-born US citizen. Even faster than seeing US companies being acquired by non-US ones, we will see CEOs of US companies who come from overseas. a reasonable move if we want them to pick the best available, and many Americans have shown that they can be a strong managers in non-US companies.

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