PepsiCo and Anheuser Busch Team Up

The pact between PepsiCo (PEP) and Anheuser Busch to team up on making purchases sounds unusual, and it is. The Financial Times says it is "believed to be the first of its kind between two large U.S. corporations."

But it seems like a great idea. The two companies will jointly buy computers, software, office supplies, transportation, and other goods and services. The companies didn't say how much savings they'll realize, but it will no doubt be substantial.

It's not the first arrangement between the firms. The pact "reflects the growing competitive threat posed to Coca-Cola (KO)" by PepsiCo's partenerships with Anheuser Busch InBev (ABI), the American brewer's parent. That company's Brazilian subsidiary, AmBev, is already PepsiCo's chief bottler and distributor in Latin America. And PepsiCo is the biggest customer of Metal Container, another ABI subsidiary that makes aluminum cans (though it also sells cans to Coke).

The Financial Times says there is "speculation" that Coke will counter the move by striking a similar partnership with SABMiller, the No. 2 brewer in the world after ABI.

Jeremiah McWilliams, who covers the beer business for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, likes the idea. The pact "strikes us as an ingenious way to cut costs," he writes. "Will we see more cooperation in the future between the drinks giants?"

A bigger question is whether this is the beginning of a trend among giant corporations that are in similar businesses and that buy similar goods from many of  the same kinds of vendors but don't directly compete with each other—banks and insurance companies, say, or makers of computer hardware and home-electronics manufacturers.