When Adolph Coors and Bernhard Stroh started their breweries more than a century ago, the beer industry was wide open and hundreds of small companies were able to compete. Today the top five brewers control 90% of the market and the industry is no longer so forgiving. Last week struggling Stroh agreed to sell most of its brewery operations to Coors for $425 million.
For Stroh and Coors, the third and fourth largest U.S. brewers, the combination is a matter of necessity. Neither has the financial clout or national brands needed to compete against behemoths Anheuser-Busch (market share: 42%) and Miller...
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