Overnight, Belgian newspaper De Standaard wrote that, based on its sources, Warren Buffett backs an InBev buy-out of Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD).

Is it any wonder? BUD can try to greatly improve its earnings on its own. With 50% of the US beer market, that may be hard. It can hope that buying the piece of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo that it does not already own will help profits. More likely it will increase debt or dilute current shareholder.

BUD's problem is that its shares may never see $60 again. They have risen above that on the InBev offer. A look at the company's long-term shock chart shows it has never been this high before.

If Buffett makes his backing of the InBev offer public, most of the BUD investors are likely to follow. He will have done all of them a favor.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) wants to stay out of the hands of potential acquirer InBev. It seems willing to go to great lengths to do that. Shareholders of the brewery may get crushed in the process.

To get itself out of its jam, Anheuser-Busch has approached Grupo Modelo, the big Mexican brewer, about a merger. The American company already owns about half of the Modelo. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Acquiring the rest of the Mexican brewer could make the combined company too expensive for InBev."

A Modelo deal may help the Busch family keep their jobs, but the shareholders will almost certainly get hammered.

The InBev offer for the company is $65. Looking at a chart of Anheuser-Busch shares going back to 1983, the stock has never traded anywhere near that level.

In some ways the Anheuser-Busch move looks like Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) rejection of the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) buy-out offer. Shareholders are never going to get this kind of premium again. The "founders" get to stay in charge.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

After a quiet start to 2007, Anheuser-Busch's (NYSE: BUD) prospects have brightened considerably, according to CEO August A. Busch IV, speaking at the Lehman Brothers Consumer Conference. The company now expects to surpass its target EPS growth of 7-10% for the year. Contributing to the stronger than expected performance has been BUD's growing stable of import and boutique beers, especially those brought on-line through its investment in Mexico's Grupo Modelo. International sales have also pushed up the bottom line.

Also contributing to the 2.7% growth in revenue per barrel was a successful price increase. The soft market for its brews that it experienced in the first quarter has turned around, with sales to retailers up 2.4%. The CEO also touted the company's aggressive pursuit of the China market.

The growth is reflected in good news for investors. In July, BUD boosted its quarterly dividend by 11.9%, and intends $2.5 billion in share repurchases this year.

After a cool spring and early summer, the weather has been as hot as a firecracker in the Midwest, so I'm not surprised by the sales increase. Looking for a stock play to make money on global warming? Consider taking a position behind a tall, cold one.

Yesterday Anheuser-Busch Cos. (NYSE:BUD) reported a first quarter EPS of $.67, short of the $.69 analysts had expected, and the market reacted with a share price drop of $1.45 to close at $50.90.

The company reported sales of 37.6 million barrels of suds for the quarter, up 2.2% over 2006, but only 0.5% of that growth was in the U.S. International sales were up 8.7%, accounting for the lion's share of growth. The company credits this to strong sales in Canada and China. Also, equity partners Grupo Modelo and Tsingtao did well for the quarter, boosting this class by 4.1% on modest volumes.

More troubling was the report that the company's market share dropped from 50.9% in 2006 to 50.2%. A price increase imposed in this quarter helped the company reach a consolidated net sales increase of 2.7%. For the quarter, the company reported net income of $518 million, up from $499 million a year ago.