They say Bill Gates isn’t into beer, but he is a big fan of social engineering, viruses, farmland, lab-based meat, burying trees, and being a billionaire—oh, and “updates.” So the question of the day is, what inspired a nearly 100 million investment in Bud Light beleaguered Anheuser Busch?
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust purchased 1.7 million shares of Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, worth around $95 million, according to a recent regulatory filing and TipRanks. Reports indicate that Mr. Gates purchased the shares in August, or months after a boycott was initiated against Bud Light after it decided to engage in a promotional campaign with a transgender activist.
The stock has been up and down and is about ten dollars lower per share today than when Dylan Mulvaney’s “endorsement” began tanking the brand. Ten bucks more times 1.7 million shares are still couch cushion money to Gates, but even Bill’s couches need more “loose change.” The problem, however, is that the late March peak was a peak, not the rolling average price of the stock. Today, it is at 56+/-, but a year ago, it was at 44+/-. It hasn’t managed to get anywhere near its pre-pandemic peak in 2019 of just over 100.00 per share, and the recovery climb -what of it there was – was interrupted when Mulvaney’s face canned the brand.
Is interest from the Gate Foundation good or bad for Bud? The Street has a cheeky bit about the buy titled, “Bud Light has a new celebrity fan it might not want.”
Anheuser-Busch (BUD) has a new supporter, and the beer producer, which has been trying to run away from politics, might not be thrilled at who it is.
Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates has become a villain to the right-wing community, which mistrusts his global charity efforts. He was accused of all sorts of villainy when it came to covid vaccines including using them as a way to implant tracking chips in people’s bodies. …
A spokeperson for Cascade Asset Management, which manages the investments of Gate’s foundation, sent TheStreet a statement on the purchase after this article was originally published.
“As Chief Investment Officer of Cascade Asset Management Company, Michael Larson oversees the investment decisions for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. Bill Gates did not purchase shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev nor did he participate in the investment decision of the Trust. Cascade, which manages the assets of the Trust, sees value in BUD at recent prices,” he shared.
So it wasn’t Bill? Well, guess what? It wasn’t BUD either. Most of Anheuser Busch had no idea (allegedly) about the move to use Mulvaney to broaden Bud Light’s brand, which we now know meant kill it. And no one knew the Foundation was going to buy in with the close to 100 million investment, but is his name (or his Foundation’s name) going to push more people away?
No one who thinks what Bill Gates does matters will start drinking Bud or Bud Light. At the same time, how many Bud (family) drinkers will be put off by Bill’s new association? Aren’t they likely to be the same people who bailed on Bud ‘cuz Mulvaney?
The Gates move could inspire other investors to drop a dime or two on the stock, which might bring it back a bit, but absent rising real-world sales (and value), it would be an empty gesture and a bad investment. Not that Bill (sorry, his Foundation) couldn’t dump the shares in another gesture called profit-taking if the price bumps a bit. They could use the extra dough to fund more of those lab-leaked variants we wrote about yesterday.
