Washington  - Anheuser-Busch Co moved Monday to keep investors happy after it rejected InBev NV's 46.3-billion-dollar hostile takeover bid, announcing massive job cuts and bright prospects for the current year's performance.

The Missouri-based Anheuser board "found InBev's proposal too low," said chief executive officer August A Busch IV, in a telephone conference with reporters, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

Chief financial officer Randolph Baker told reporters that the company expected 2008 earnings to show the greatest increase in six years.

To keep stock prices up, it said it would buyback more shares, to the tune of 3 billion dollars this year, and repurchase another 4 billion dollars of shares in 2009.

The salaried workforce faced a 10 to 15 per cent cut in numbers, or as many as 1,290 jobs, through early retirement.

Two weeks ago, InBev unveiled its offer that would unite Budweiser beer with Stella Artois, Beck's and Bass. An InBev spokeswoman said the company would study the brewer's response. (dpa)