Here's How Long It Took Anheuser Busch To Reach A $100B Market Cap

In early 2007, officials at the Belgian brewing giant InBev started quietly talking about the possibility of taking over one of the biggest beer brands in the world.

What made the Europeans start to think they could actually acquire Anheuser Busch, the makers of the iconic Budweiser brand, a name steeped in American history and culture? Size.

Early that year, InBev's own market capitalization surpassed that of Anheuser-Busch, which in January of 2007 was just under $40 billion, giving the now bigger European brewing conglomerate confidence to take on the world.

The acquisition would have to wait, as Anheuser Busch wasn't all that interested at first. But in late 2008, Anheuser Busch sold itself to InBev for $52 billion, creating the world's largest brewer.

The Budweiser maker had been publicly traded for several years, but dropped off the NYSE when taken over. But in 2009, InBev CEO Carlos Brito said there was sufficient investor interest to relist the company on the exchange, under its old well-known ticker, "BUD."

Now, Anheuser Busch Inbev NV's BUD market cap is well over $120 billion.

See Also: Here's How Long It Took Coca-Cola To Reach A $100B Market Cap

How Long It Took To Hit $100B

When InBev took it over, Anheuser Bush's market cap plummeted to below $8 billion.

But in December 2008, it jumped back up above $30 billion and began a slow, steady climb. By October 2010, it was flirting with $100 billion - and briefly topped that milestone, before dropping back below it. It hit $100 billion again in April 2011, but again only briefly.

The market cap was up and down for several months, and then, in the first week of February of 2012, it crossed the $100 billion threshold for good - about three years and three months from takeover to becoming a $100 billion company to stay. In February of 2015, AB Inbev hit the $200 billion market capitalization, though it has since settled back to its current market cap of around $125 billion.

Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash