Anheuser-Busch is just the tip of the iceberg

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Are you reading too much Drudge and freaking out about the potential sale of Anheuser-Busch to a European beverage conglomerate?

Perhaps you haven’t been paying attention. FP Editor in Chief Moisés Naím has been predicting this moment for months:

Everything from corporate behemoths to family-owned companies are about to come to America on a corporate buying spree. Call it the Euroinvasion. Not only will many U.S. companies now have European owners, but the American marketplace will witness an infusion of new foreign competitors that will manufacture their products in the United States. They will use their new American base both to export to the world—including back to their own European market—and to serve the U.S. market from inside its borders. Such a trans-Atlantic shift will have an enormous impact on Europe’s levels of employment and exports. Inevitably, the move will also ignite a political firestorm on both sides of the Atlantic. European politicians will denounce the companies for “exporting jobs” to America, while U.S. politicians, already rattled by the threat of foreign competition, will be infuriated by what they will brand as “the foreign takeover of America.” CNN anchor Lou Dobbs will be foaming at the mouth.

Why is this happening now? The plummeting U.S. dollar has made the move across the Atlantic affordable for many European companies. And this may be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to relocate: American companies have rarely been so cheap. Five years ago, a German or Spanish company that coveted a U.S. competitor worth $500 million needed roughly 430 million euros to purchase it. Today, it would take just 316 million euros to buy a company worth half a billion dollars.

Read the whole thing, and let us know if you catch any vintage Lou Dobbs moments.