Potentially very good news.
I do not agree. The ammo manufacturing divison of RUAG was, for the longest time, part of the Swiss government. Its roots reach back to the "Pulvermühle Steffisburg" located near the Swiss capital Bern and thought to be the oldest ammunition factory in the world (founded 1586). Production was always geared towards professional users (Swiss army and other armed forces, police etc), with a reputation of providing high quality ammo at competitive prices (compared to other offerings in the professional market). And as Shawn said, RUAG is very successful in this market segment and there is probably no army in the world that is not a RUAG customer. Over time, other brands came to the fold (RWS, Geco, Norma, Rottweil etc), so far so good. Then in 1998, after centuries of ammo production as part of the Swiss government, the RUAG small arms ammo production division was privatised and became RUAG Ammotec, an independent company specialized in producing small arms ammo, and it is this company that Beretta Holding S.p.A. acquired. (There are other RUAG divisions for heavy weapons & ammo, space, aviation etc, some were privatised too, some remain part of the Swiss government.)
Now why do I not agree with the statement that RUAG Ammotec now being part of Beretta is good news? Because RUAG has been producing high quality ammunition for centuries and they have a very good reputation. They don't have a problem with the quality of their products or finding customers. Beretta can't help RUAG Ammotec on the product/manufacturing side of things. There's probably no company on the planet with more experience and know-how about small arms ammunition manufacturing than RUAG Ammotec. All Beretta will do is try to reduce cost which may result in lower prices but potentially also in lower quality. That is not a good thing as "low" priced low quality ammo is already available from other manufacturers. However, there is one thing Beretta does bring to the table, and that is retail distribution. Beretta can bring RUAG Ammotec products to private customers in every corner of the world, and that has the potential to be huge for RUAG Ammotec. Even here in Switzerland, where RUAG small arms ammo is widely available, there is pretty much zero marketing towards retail customers. Ammo usually comes in plain white boxes, military style, no colors, no fancy names, the way armies and police corps get them. I expect Beretta to follow SIG's example and come up with cool names and packaging for retail sales, which is obviously not a bad thing per se, but they will very likely market the ammo to retail customers under the Beretta brand. For the professional market, I expect the RUAG Ammotec brand to be continued.
So overall, we're losing a large and significant independent high quality ammo manufacturer, and Beretta Holding S.p.A. becomes even more domineering in the small arms market. It's not some huge catastrophe, but it's not a good thing either.
At this point a gentleman would apologize for the lenghty post, but as you can imagine, centuries of ammo manufacturing history would provide info for an even longer post, so instead I hope you appreciate the brevity!
