Anchor Brewing Co., a century-old San Francisco brewer that helped pioneer the craft-beer movement, will be acquired by Sapporo Holdings Ltd., part of a push by Japanese beverage companies to seek growth on U.S. soil.
The business, best known for Anchor Steam beer, fetched about $85 million in the transaction, which is slated to close by the end of the month.
The deal reflects mounting pressure by craft brewers to find deep-pocketed partners as they face an increasingly crowded market. For Sapporo, the challenge is coping with a slowdown in its home country. Beer consumption in Japan has been on a steady decline in the last decade as the number of young people reaching drinking age shrinks.