Credit Suisse First Boston

"The trio’s timeline 1971: Jorge Paulo Lemann buys the Garantia broker dealer in Rio, with financing from private individuals 1976: Garantia earns a banking license with the Brazilian Central Bank 1982: Garantia partners acquire a controlling stake in Lojas Americanas, a retailer. Beto becomes its CEO 1989: Garantia partners acquire a controlling stake in Cervejaria Brahma, a beer brewing company. Marcel becomes its CEO 1998: Banco Garantia is sold to Credit Suisse First Boston. Most of its executives won’t work with the trio anymore on a full-time basis (although many remain co-investors in many of their deals) 1999: Brahma merges with (i.e., buys) Cervejaria Antartica, forming Ambev, Brazil’s largest beer brewing company 2004: The trio enters an agreement with Belgian giant Interbrew’s controlling shareholders where the two groups become controlling shareholders of Inbev, the resulting company 2008: Inbev buys Anheuser-Busch, America’s most iconic brewery, on the brink of the subprime mortgage crisis, forming Anheuser-Busch Inbev, AB Inbev, for short 2010: 3G Capital, the trio’s private equity firm, does its largest deal to date, buying Burger King from another private equity fund…"

"Eleven Madison Park was lagging far behind our optimistic projections. But rather than explaining this sluggishness as a natural challenge of building a business from scratch, we convinced ourselves that people didn’t have time to leave their desks for lunch. We decided that the solution was to deliver beautifully designed box lunches to their offices. We targeted Credit Suisse First Boston in particular, since its world headquarters were upstairs at 11 Madison. We offered a choice of three exquisite sandwiches, homemade potato chips, a bottle of water, and a homemade cookie. Unfortunately, very few people bought this concept, or the box lunches. We had made a fundamental mistake by trying to extend an original brand without having first established the core brand."