Bud Light’s financial collapse is a cautionary tale for other companies thinking about going woke.
The light beer will never return to its former glory.
And Bill Gates made one huge mistake involving Bud Light that he’s going to live to regret.
Bud Light is the poster child for how to destroy a brand after the company’s catastrophic decision to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, is being decimated by the boycott that broke out in April when the woke partnership was announced.
Shares of the company’s stock are down 9% over the last six months, and some financial analysts don’t think the stock has hit rock bottom.
Sales plummeted by 10.5% in the second quarter, and earnings dropped by 28.2% before taxes, interest, and depreciation.
Bud Light was dethroned as the best-selling beer in the country, after over two decades on top, by Mexican lager Modelo Especial.
Anheuser-Busch’s financial turmoil wasn’t enough to scare away one prominent investor.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is making an enormous bet that Bud Light can bounce back from its woke controversy.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust purchased 1.7 million shares of Anheuser-Busch last quarter, which were valued at nearly $95 million.
The boycott against the brand shows no signs of slowing down despite Gates’s optimism about the company’s future.
Modelo Especial is increasing its lead over Bud Light in sales as it gets more shelf space at retailers.
Since the Gates Trust made its massive purchase of Anheuser-Busch, shares of the company’s stock are down 2%.
Former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks told Fox Business that Gates made a “mistake” buying into the embattled brewing conglomerate.
“Bill Gates is definitely making a mistake,” Frericks said. “Earlier this year, he already made a $900 million mistake when he invested into one of Anheuser-Busch’s largest rivals, Heineken. He did that earlier this year. And since that investment, Heineken’s down about 10%, whereas the broader markets are up 10%.”
Heineken is one of the few brewers that hasn’t capitalized on the Bud Light backlash.
“So if I was looking for advice on investing to software companies, tech companies, I might go to Bill Gates,” Frericks added. “But if you’re looking at the beer industry, he doesn’t have a great track record of investing in winners at this point.”
Betting big on Bud Light is the latest bad headline for the troubled Big Tech billionaire.
Gates was rocked by another scandal after it was revealed that women applying for a job at his company, Gates Ventures, were asked sexually explicit questions during the hiring process.
He’s also continually tried to downplay his relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein.
Bill Gates is going to pay a steep price by investing in one of the most toxic brands in the country.
