Wanna Buy A Beer Company Together?
Pabst Brewing Company, makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon, is currently owned by a charitable trust that must sell it by 2010. Forza Migliozzi and The Ad Store want to use crowdsourcing to buy the company for $300 million through their website BuyaBeerCompany.com.
From this CNN article:
Anyone over 21 can go to the site and pledge a minimum of $5 toward the reported $300 million sales price for Pabst. So far, would-be beer moguls have pledged more than $20 million in about a month. If the collective raises enough money, Migliozzi says contributors will get enough beer to match their pledges and ownership in the company.
While living in Portland, I definitely noticed the rising popularity of PBR. Shrug, I pledged $25. You don’t actually pay upfront, so we’ll see what happens.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
I read about this the other day. If your in for 25 I will put in 25. Heres to Beer!
December 19th, 2009 at 12:30 am
sounds like a publicity/marketing stunt.
at the bottom it says this is not a solicitation of monetary funds bla bla bla
December 19th, 2009 at 2:42 am
I think I agree with xmasy. Either way Pabst is a great beer, wasn’t aware it was making a comeback, especially in Portland of all places.
Schlitz on the other hand…
December 19th, 2009 at 10:00 am
If you pledge money will you actually have a part ownership in the Company and be compensated as such?
December 19th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
They seem to be extremely vague if you’ll actually own any of the company in the end and if you do, what type of shares you’ll get. There’s also no assurance that everyone that’s making a pledge will live up to their pledge when the time comes and what happens in the case that for example $50 million in pledges vanishes. The only guarantee is $25 gets you a 6 pack of PBR at some point in the future along with a piece of paper that says you contributed. Sounds like a high price to pay for a 6 pack.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I’m a PBR girl, but the only way I like it is in bottles! Thanks for posting this….it put a smile on my face!
December 19th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
So you get beer and a ‘certificate of ownership’. And then? Do you get a share of future profits? A vote? Who is going to manage the brand? I can’t find any more information on how this will actually work.
December 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Yinna, just what I was thinking. WAY to little info.
December 20th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Yinna/Jennifer – that exactly what I was trying to find on their site. I’m guessing it’s a donation to help them buy the company and all you get is product in return. No say in the company/no future profits. I wish I thought of this, ask people to give me money so I can buy something really expensive for free.
December 20th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Crowdsourcing? Heck, I thought that is what a public company is with shareholders and such.
Unless of course, they just want the money and do not want to give any shareholding rights away. Pretty bad deal in that case, even with a beer bribe.
December 20th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I don’t mind pledging $10 dollars to the cause but I want $10 worth of beer.
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:45 am
Yeah short on the details of what you’re actually pledging for. Though I really have to wonder what the quarter of a million pledge is supposed to get you?
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:09 am
Eh….PBR seems to be the dreck of hipsters around here. It’s the “cool” cheap beer. I figure if I’m going to add to the beer belly, it might as be with quality beer rather than swill!
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
Pabst, haven’t had one of them in 20 years. Didn’t like them when I was a kid, didn’t realize they still made them. Maybe we can get the brewery and make new Pabst, you know like new coke, on second thought that coke failed.
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I actually just started drinking Pabst this year (you know, cuz all the hipsters were doing it), and I must admit I like it. I’d totally be up for dishing out a few dollars for them.
January 6th, 2010 at 8:06 am
A chance to be in on an American company with an American history.
If we actually do own the company I’ll be in for a lot more then $5 or $25.
Mc
February 24th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
More than likely it is legit, the only thing is what the large print giveth, the fine print takes away.
More than likely you are just a junior share holder with not voting rights and the beer may disappear if that move is not in the best interest of the company.
Definitely a crapshoot!