Sometimes internal family feuds produce tabloid-style media coverage. In Mexico, for example, the Azcarraga family has controlled the largest television broadcaster, Grupo Televisa S.A., for three generations.

It wasn’t until the widow of the company’s former chair¬man was arrested and forced to relinquish her claim on a major stake in the company that observers began to look closely at how the company operated and at its board composition. It often takes a major event, such as the at¬tempted power grab at Grupo Televisa, for family tensions to surface.

The Japan-based international beer company, Kirin Holdings Co., became embroiled in a family feud when it tried to acquire a controlling stake in a family-controlled Brazilian beer manufacturer, Schincariol Participacoes e Representacoes SA.

About 50 percent of the shares in the Brazilian company that Kirin sought to acquire are held by a company owned by the Shincariol CEO and his brother, who are descendants of the founder. However, the other 49 per¬cent of Shincariol shares are owned by a company run by cousins in the same family.

The CEO and his brother were anxious to sell, but the cousins objected and went to court seeking an injunction. A story in The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese national daily newspaper, detailed the family feud, which dated back to the 1950s, when the company’s Italian immigrant founder divided ownership of the company between his two sons. Beer industry insiders said the family split was common knowledge, but Kirin apparently was not expecting the resistance it encountered.

As with all family business stories, writing authoritatively and accurately about the inner workings of such a company requires good sources within the company, whether insiders or outsiders, and within the family.

To see how reporters handled this story, see “Family Feud Upsetting Kirin’s Expansion Plans in Brazil”: http://bit.ly/IhYdK1