How America's industrial aristocracy is losing its grip

As Inbev, the giant Belgian brewer of Stella Artois, finally launched its $46 billion (£23 billion) assault on Budweiser maker Anheuser Busch this week, it soon became apparent there is much more at stake in this deal than who can sell the most lager in the world. Anheuser Busch is one of the last remaining American dynasties - the great family corporations that grew up alongside the United States itself.

The Busch family of St Louis, Missouri, whose corporate colours match the stars and stripes and whose mascot is a bald eagle, built cities and towns, employed millions and helped make the US economy a global powerhouse.

It is not economic and corporate prowess that is lost when such a dynasty is subsumed into a modern behemoth such as InBev - indeed, improving financial fortunes is the whole point of a merger. But priceless and irreplaceable assets like the personalities, idiosyncrasies and loyalties linked to the founding family will disappear forever.

Every true dynasty's history is pockmarked with feuds, avaricious uncles, wayward nieces, inheritance battles, messy divorces and occasionally a duel to the death. If InBev takes control of Anheuser Busch, the closest you will get to a blood match is a contentious proxy battle over executive pensions at the annual meeting. I know which I'd rather watch.

The Busch family has a particularly colourful history.

August A Busch IV, at just 44, has only been in the chief executive's seat for 18 months and yet is set to determine his family's place in American corporate history. For him, the takeover bid is very personal. He has struggled all his life to win the acceptance of his strict and disapproving father - August A Busch III. In fact, the younger Busch tells anyone who asks that his goal is to win the love and approval of his father.

His attitude has sparked a family feud with Adolphus Busch IV, half-brother of the older August Busch. Adolphus believes a deal with InBev would be a good thing. It would certainly make him a lot of money.

As the bid was finally tabled on Wednesday, it seemed the Adolphus faction was in the driving seat. After all, the $65 a share laid down by InBev is a far greater price than Anheuser's stock has ever reached, and far higher than it is likely to go alone.

What is more, the family only owns a tiny percentage of shares and is far outweighed by legions of institutional investors, who are all doubtless tired of sluggish returns.

The Busch family is just the latest American dynasty to face being pushed off its pedestal by the shareholding hoi polloi.

The Rockefeller family, descendants of John Rockefeller, the greatest American tycoon of them all, were firmly put in their place by shareholders and the board of Exxon Mobil at a recent annual meeting.