On October the 13th, Vice News reported on an upcoming merger between two of the largest Beer companies in the world: Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller. This will create a company worth of over $275billion. But what does this mean to the consumer. (VICE News)

Anheuser-Busch InBev currently has 6 major international brands (Budweiser, Hoegaarden, Corona, etc.) and an additional 15 ‘local’ brands (with their own sub brands) (ABInBev). Now combining that with SABMiller’s selection of 242 different beers (SABMiller), that almost limits the whole beer market to one provider. Do we really have a choice then?

Well when we look at the soft-drinks market we see a similar situation, except what is happening here is Coca-Cola has merged with Pepsi. The question stands: “does this limit choice?” and “do we care?”

Well it is all dependent on the consumer. When we go to the local groceries there is very rarely any complaints about the selections of soft-drinks because many of the same companies brands are very heavily differentiated. The same applies to beer.

The only issue with such giant corporations running markets is that some consumers may not agree with the value proposition of the head firm, putting all of its products in a bad light. In this case there would be very limited amount of choice for that consumer.

Luckily for these corporate giants, the majority of the world do not agree with such a stance on consumption. Do you?

References:

VICE News. “Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller Agree to Form Massive Beer Company in Record Deal.” VICE News. N.p., 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 18 Oct. 2015. <https://news.vice.com/article/anheuser-busch-inbev-and-sabmiller-agree-to-form-massive-beer-company-in-record-deal>.

AB InBev. http://www.ab-inbev.com/brands.html

SABMiller. http://www.sabmiller.com/brands/brand-explorer

BlackBerry has been on the brink of extinction for years. From stocks having fallen to 10% of what they were in 2008 (NASDAQ) to an unsuccessful collaboration with an e-commerce giant Amazon, Blackberry seems to be struggling to boost their popularity back to where they were 10 years ago.  Will the ‘Priv’ change all that?

The recently announced headset ‘Priv’ is said to be equipped with the accessibility of Android and the security of Blackberry, hence the name ‘Priv’ for privacy (BNN). This is a huge move for Blackberry as they will now have the opportunity to attract all of their customers they lost with the split made by Android and Apple’s expansive application selection.

Will it be enough? In recent years, BB has earned itself a reputation for making products for the elderly and paranoid. Therefore it may be a difficult paradigm shift to make for the general public. None the less this corporate collaboration may mean lot to not only to the die hard Blackberry fans but to general consumers not bound to apple or samsung.

 

References:

“BlackBerry Limited (BBRY) Stock Chart.” NASDAQ.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2015. <http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/bbry/stock-chart?intraday=off&timeframe=10y&charttype=line&splits=off&earnings=off&movingaverage=None&lowerstudy=volume&comparison=off&index=&drilldown=off&sDefault=true>.

Gray, John. “Blackberry CEO John Chen Gives BNN a Sneak Peek at Priv Smartphone.” BNN.com. BellMedia, 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 03 Oct. 2015. <http://www.bnn.ca/News/2015/9/25/Blackberry-CEO-John-Chen-gives-BNN-a-sneak-peek-at-Priv-Handset.aspx>.