In 2008, after many decades of Busch family ownership, a company called InBev, the largest beer company in the world — owner of some 400 beer brands today — bought the Anheuser-Busch Company in a hostile takeover for a whopping $52 billion, making the surviving Busch family members even wealthier.

The Busch family lost control of Anheuser-Busch in 2008 through a hostile takeover by the Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev. For decades, the company had been a symbol of American industrial pride, but by the mid-2000s, internal family strife and a stagnant stock price made it vulnerable. When InBev launched a $46 billion bid ($70 per share), the board of directors was legally obligated to consider the offer for the shareholders' benefit, despite the vocal opposition of August Busch III and August Busch IV. The family owned only about 4% of the company's shares at the time, which was insufficient to block the sale. The deal was finalized in November 2008, creating Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world's largest brewer. This marked the end of over 150 years of family management and led to aggressive cost-cutting measures and the sale of non-core assets like the Busch Entertainment theme parks (now United Parks & Resorts), forever changing the legacy of the St. Louis-based brewing empire.