It’s a cruel world. For years, brewer SABMiller was talked up as the ultimate takeover target for AB-InBev and there was very little they could do to silence this kind of unwanted speculation.

Ahmegawd, a Budweiser ad caused such an uproar during Super Bowl that it got the beard-and-sandal brigade running into verbose overdrive on social media during the week that followed.

The rumour mill about some well-established craft breweries looking to “change ownership” is swirling like a tornado. The Elysian and 10 Barrel sales to AB-InBev in the space of a few months have made craft beer consumers exceedingly worried about their loyalties.

Remember the counting song “ten green bottles hanging on a wall”? It comes to mind as AB-InBev buys yet another U.S. craft brewer. The target this time is Elysian Brewery, a 50,000 barrel (58,000 hl) beer company from Seattle. The deal was announced on 23 January 2015, though no financial details were disclosed.

At the trade publication Beer Marketers Insights (BMI), they kept themselves busy in January this year, adding up the sales figures for 2014. According to their estimates, it was not a good year in terms of volume sales for the country’s biggest brewers. The top 10 beer brands in the U.S. collectively lost 1.2 percent in sales over 2013, or a total of 1.4 million barrels beer (1.6 million hl).

Rexam, the global beverage can maker, announces that it has jointly with Envases Universales de Mexico (EUM), completed an investment in Envases Del Istmo SA (Endelis), a single line beverage can plant in Colón, Panama. Long term supply agreements have been secured with SABMiller and Florida Ice & Farm Company SA (FIFCO) whose affiliates previously owned the Endelis business.

Florian Kuplent, co-founder and brewmaster of Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., a craft brewery located in St. Louis, MO has purchased the Bürgerbräu Wolnzach in his homeland of Bavaria, and plans to brew small batches of his beers there.

It’s a big worry: with over 3,000 breweries operating in the U.S., basically every large city, landscape feature, creature and weather pattern has been grabbed and trademarked as the name of either a brewery or a beer. For newcomers to the increasingly crowded industry, finding names for their beers, or even themselves, is becoming harder and harder without risking a legal fight.

How good can it get? Craft beer has yet to reach its saturation point. The industry’s U.S. revenue hit an estimated USD 4.2 billion in 2014, and it is now the fastest-growing alcohol category by revenue.

Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola is set to cut up to 1,800 jobs worldwide as it continues its cost-cutting efforts, various media reported on 9 January 2015.