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One year ago today, St. Louis learned its premier corporation was "in play," as they say on Wall Street. In a flurry of late-afternoon press releases, it was revealed that Anheuser-Busch was being targeted for a takeover. The hunter: Belgian brewer InBev.

A potential takeover of Anheuser-Busch had been mulled among analysts for a while. InBev, formed in 2004 from a combination of Belgium’s Interbrew and Brazil’s AmBev, was constantly on the prowl for acquisitions. Its executives had alternately admired and coveted Anheuser-Busch for a long time. InBev, imbued with an investment bank’s ultra-aggressive style, had quietly put itself into position to vie for the ultimate prize.

Anheuser-Busch, long the world’s biggest brewer, had slipped from the pinnacle. But it still dominated the U.S. beer market, the world’s most profitable. St. Louis still thought of it as the "King of Beers."

On June 11, 2008, that illusion was damaged. Later, it would be shattered.

At first, InBev couched its $46.3 billion buyout offer in friendly terms. It said it would invite a number of A-B directors to join the board of the combined company and would retain key A-B managers. It would work to make Budweiser the company’s flagship brand.

"We have the highest respect for Anheuser-Busch, its employees and leadership" InBev chief executive Carlos Brito wrote in a letter to August Busch IV, his counterpart at A-B.

But InBev’s tough reputation had preceded it. For some, the shock to the system was immediate.

"I was nearly in tears," Maureen Ogle, author of "Ambitious Brew," a historical look at the U free credit report online.S. beer industry, said this week. If Anheuser-Busch was taken over, she recalled thinking, "it would never be the same."

A-B employees, area residents, beer distributors and others also had plenty of worries. "There was so much fear in the network," said Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business Daily.

But at first, there was plenty of doubt that InBev could pull off the buyout, said Schuhmacher. "It was still very much in limbo."

The proposed deal was the biggest news to hit the beer industry in years. It even eclipsed the creation of MillerCoors — a U.S. joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors.

For a month, Anheuser-Busch and InBev alternately maneuvered behind closed doors, in courtrooms and in the media. St. Louis citizens hoped the Busch family had a strategy to keep the company independent. Observers wondered whether the company’s hastily announced plan to cut costs was designed to help it escape InBev, or simply a ploy to get a better price.

It was soon a moot point. A-B’s board accepted a sweetened bid in mid-July. The official purchase would wait for a few months, but it was a fait accompli.

The foreign buyout of an American icon did not spark a widespread backlash. Outside St. Louis, the controversy died down quickly.

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