With business divestitures, layoffs have become a matter of course, "just did not expect the CD so many people," a retrenched staff commented that "I do not SMS sales."

Given the size of the two companies, AB InBev would have to agree to divestitures to obtain regulatory approval for a deal in multiple countries, including the US and China.

The market is betting that Cfius is almost certainly going to require divestitures or restrictions on access of the Chinese company to Syngenta's American operations and technology.