Will St. Louis learn from history?
Chris Britt’s cartoon on Wednesday depicts the venerable Budweiser Clydesdales and their apparent disappointment with the InBev buyout of Anheuser-Busch. I have the luxury of working near St. Louis and living in Chatham so I am able to identify with both cultures some of the time. It is clear the pursuit of solvency has driven many companies to be purchased, taken over, bought out or bought back (as in a company buying back stock to switch from publicly held to privately held). Having worked near the Arch since 1995 I have witnessed two such buyouts or mergers. The first was American Airlines absorbing Trans World Airways and the second was Boeing absorbing McDonnell Douglas. In the former example, I had the pleasure of flying in first class one day sitting next to then-St Louis Mayor Clarence Harmon. I didn’t engage him much to respect his privacy, but a TWA flight attendant recognized him immediately and proceeded to dominate his next hour en route to Washington, D.C. What did my eav
