George W. Bush never much liked antitrust enforcement. So, as the curtain began to fall on the second Bush term, the beer industry saw its chance and took it, pulling off two of the industry's biggest-ever mergers. SAB Miller's purchase of Coors brought together not only Miller and Coors but also Pilsner Urquell, Peroni, Grolsch, Molson's and Foster's. Then came InBev's purchase of Anheuser-Busch, creating an even bigger global powerhouse that combined Bud, Michelob, Becks, Stella Artois, Bass, Boddington's, Lowenbrau, Spaten and St. Pauli's Girl. For the U.S. market, the result was that the two industry leaders now accounted for about 80 percent of beer sales by volume, a level of concentration well above what anyone considers healthy or competitive.
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