Molson Coors formed in 2005 when the Canadian Molson Brewing merged with the American-owned Adolph Coors Company. The deal was made between the two companies that were not major worldwide players at the time but both had rich histories in North America. Founded in 1786, Molson Brewing Company is the oldest on the continent. The Adolph Coors Company began brewing in 1873.
It is significant to note that there are a variety of strategic reasons throughout history that lead these two companies into a merger. The Coors family had built an iconic brewery in Colorado that grew based on their quality and ability to innovate in the mid-twentieth century. They were the first brewery to develop refrigerated trains for transportation, a cold filtered brewing process, and the first aluminum can. Yet, there were some events that lead to some turmoil in the organization. One instance involved the selling of $130,000,000 in shares to the public in order to alleviate a Coors family member from debt. Although the shares did not hold any voting rights, the family ventured into the world of stockholders for the first time. Perhaps the
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Molson had more invested in global breweries but was not nearly as powerful in the United States. Coors was a larger brewery in terms of revenue, but their sales outside the country only accounted for about 2% of their overall volume. In 2005, they inked a deal that would be labeled as a “merger of equals”. The $3.5 billion deal actually consisted of Coors purchasing Molson, thus creating Molson Coors. The purchase agreement was decided because Coors was roughly 60% of the overall business at the time. Because of this, the company was to be based in Golden, Colorado and labeled as American owned. Pete Coors and Eric Molson decided to run the company together, although Pete Coors has always held the most influence