The Buying and Selling of Pabst Blue Ribbon

A little over a month ago, billionaire dealmaker C. Dean Metropoulos decided–after 5 less than years of ownership–to sell Pabst Brewing Company to Russia-based Oasis Beverages. It's hard to deny Metropoulos the chops that he bought a brand and in just a few years can sell it again and put half a billion dollars in his pocket.

Drew Harwell at the Washington Post has an interesting article about the man behind the sale… or to be slightly more precise, the man's family. Metropoulos had his son's run the company and the deal. What's so interesting about that, you ask? Turns out sons Daren and Evan come off like douchebags that probably have never drank a blue-collar beer in their silver spoon lives.

They have been called “as far from both hipster and blue collar as they could possibly be.” A former employee that left during the brothers' reign referred to them as “20-something billionaires whose dad had bought them a new toy.” Living in a house next to the Playboy Mansion brother Daren told Howard Stern “Let’s be honest, I don't have to work.” And Evan told a New York Times reporter, “I've been with more chicks than any fat guy you know, except Pavarotti.”

Ah, so they're kids. They like to party. And admire Pavarotti. And maybe even drink… calling Pabst “a trophy property…we'll own for the rest of our lives.” They even belittled foreign beer ownership during a 2010 interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. Evan even imagined berating a non-customer: “Shame on you for drinking Bud Light! What the hell are you drinking that for? To support some foreigners?”

How things change when you see the potential for a half-billion dollars in profit.

Please read Drew's article Meet the Twinkie-saving, beer-selling billionaire who has changed the way you eat.