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" So a lot of whiskey-lovin&amp;#039; folks rousted themselves from their post-Golden Globes brown liquor stupor to a big surprise this morning: it appears that a good proportion of the bastion of all-American booze is now firmly ensconced in the orient. Yessiree-Bob, or, more appropriately, Jim, as in Beam, has been sold to Japanese food and beverage giant Suntory to the tune of a sweet $16 billion. That&amp;#039;s a lot of dough, but it&amp;#039;s also a lot of booze. Beam et. al. is the fourth largest spirits company in the world, with north of seventy varietals of hooch. From shudder-inducing After Shock to mouth watering \u2014 and not watered down \u2014 Maker&amp;#039;s Mark to Windsor Canadian Whiskey to, of course, all the different flavors of Mr. Jim Beam himself, it&amp;#039;s a liquor cabinet that would make any college party house proud.  The question is: What does it all mean? Why are the Japanese scooping up our sauce? Well, first of all, they love it, and Suntory is no slouch when it comes to whiskey, with a pretty portfolio of their own. Some of it is really good, too. Second of all, who wouldn&amp;#039;t want to corner the liquor market? It&amp;#039;s not like we&amp;#039;re going to give up drinking any time soon. Nevermind that Suntory owns everything from fitness clubs to flower shops to soda, juice, beer, wine, and, of course, liquor brands. So many liquor brands that once Beam shareholders approve this deal, which it looks like they will (although there are always some alarmists), Suntory will be the third largest manufacturer of the hard stuff in the world. That&amp;#039;s an annual 18.1 million cases of whiskey alone for just their collective top five brands, or a staggering 217,200,000 bottles.  What does that mean for us, the lowly consumer? Well, not much. Very little is likely to change, as Suntory no doubt understands that to be an outsider messing with a heritage brand is about as smart as marketing your plus size clothing with a skinny pregnant girl. If anything, this could open up distribution for us in the states to get our hands on some amazing Japanese whiskeys, and allow Beam to sell more of its American-produced nectar overseas, thus creating jobs right here at home.  And we&amp;#039;ll drink to that. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/drinks/news/a26737/jim-beam-sold-to-suntory-and-its-okay/>