Beer vs Baby Food

The New York Times has an interesting article about the proposed merger of SABMiller and Molson Coors in today's paper.

It seems that analysts feel that antitrust regulators will likely approve the merger. But a similar deal seeking to combine the No. 2 and No. 3 players in a consolidated industry — sometimes called a 3-to-2 deal, because it reduces the industry leaders from three to two — was blocked on antitrust grounds a few year ago.

That was Heinz’s attempt to buy the maker of Beech-Nut baby food, a $185 million transaction Heinz ended up abandoning.

Together, Heinz and Beech-Nut would have controlled nearly 33 percent of the retail baby-food market; Gerber, the industry leader, controlled 65 percent. Compare that with the numbers in Tuesday’s proposed deal, in which a combined MillerCoors would have a 29 percent share of the U.S. beer market, and Anheuser-Busch would have 49 percent.

Will the beer merger be approved?