Imagine this typical American strip mall: a Trader Joe's, a Sunglass Hut, a Caribou Coffee. Maybe there's a restaurant that serves hot dogs with French's mustard, and a choice of Good Humor ice cream or homemade Toll House chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Across the street is a CITGO, Shell and a 7-Eleven.
All this sounds so American. It could -- and does -- exist all across the country. Yet all of these companies and brands are foreign-owned.
Some of these marquee names were always foreign-owned, but overseas firms are increasingly buying up American properties. Most recently, beer drinkers were shocked when Belgian beer juggernaut InBev put the moves on Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD). [Update: On July 14, Anheuser-Busch agreed to be acquired by InBev for $52 billion.] How could InBev attempt to turn Budweiser into just another of its stable of international brands? We were surprised not only that those European beer snobs even liked our watery brew, but by the apparent ease with which foreigners could try to snap up American icons.
It's not just American brands and companies getting sold. Foreign companies were the buyers in four of the top 13 U.S. commercial real estate deals in 2007, according to Real Estate Alert newsletter. Another foreign acquisition of notable Manhattan real estate was the Dubai-based Jumeirah group's 2006 purchase of the Essex House on Central Park South.
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