US: The Anheuser-Busch / Corona / Constellation deal (and how it affects Upstate New York)

(Syracuse) - The complicated three-way deal announced Friday that allows the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light to buy control of the company that makes the Mexican beer Corona could have ripple effects across Upstate New York. 

The agreement means Bud brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev will be allowed by federal regulators to buy Grupe Modelo, the Mexican brewer whose flagship beer is Corona. But, to appease antitrust concerns, A-B InBev agreed to sell the rights to make and distribute Corona in the United States market to Constellation Brands, one of the world's largest wine and liquor companies.

Regulators had worried that A-B InBev, which has 39 percent of the U.S. beer market now, would have too much power to raise American beer prices if it controlled Corona, the nation's best-selling import. The deal means A-B InBev controls Corona everywhere except the U.S. 

The Upstate connections? Constellation Brands, formerly known as the Canandaigua Wine Co., is based in the Rochester suburb of Victor. And A-B InBev, the Belgium-based global brewing giant, has one of its 12 U.S. breweries just outside of Baldwinsville.