Mega deal: Bayer buys Monsanto

[Skybird]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37361556



Could become a troubled journey for Bayer. Monsanto has a reputation as bad as it can get, and Germans HATE biotech and genetically altered seeds. The deal is extremely expensive. And it is another step towards pushing market competition out and shoving monoplism in. Farmers will hate this deal as well. And Monsanto is known for dealing hard with farmers, even using legally questonable methods and intentional infestation of "clear" farming grounds and then suing for license and contract violations. Finally, Roundup is made by Monsanto, and the glyphosate in it is under heavy fire and public criticism in Europe.

I do not share the criticism of glyphosate, however, to me it is an ideolgically blown up project by enviuronmentalists trying to enforce a precedent case that would make it easy for them to then attack ANY pesticide there is.

Its the biggest foreign aqquisition by a German company ever. The deal is worth 66bn $.

I would not take it as granted that state regulators automatically let this deal pass.

For Bayer, this is a chance, but also a huge risk. The dangers are real, and significant. This will not become an automatic success story. The word to watch out for is "maybe".

[Mr Quatro]

Glad you brought this up sky ... it is a big deal, but why is a big deal?

I looked at the surface of why, but I think it goes deeper than that with global warming and other scare factors thrown in this could be an even bigger deal.

Here's their surface reasons:http://www.agweb.com/article/why-bay...monsanto-blmg/

Since it introduced seeds in 2002, Bayer AG has become the world’s third-biggest seller of crop products. But in the past year, the German chemical giant has seen that position threatened as a flurry of acquisitions sweeps the industry. Bayer’s solution? Buy its way into the No.1 spot.

Purchasing Monsanto Co., is a deal that would give Bayer more than 2,000 varieties of seeds for crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat. Adding that portfolio to its own vegetable, rice, cotton, and oilseed offerings would give Bayer a virtually unassailable position at the head of the market.

Driving any potential deal is Bayer’s ambition to become the global leader in pharmaceuticals and chemicals for people, plants and animals.

So far, investors aren’t impressed. Bayer’s Frankfurt-traded shares sank 7.7 percent, the most in seven years, on Thursday.

PS I hate Monsanto in Hawaii ... they are suspected of tainting everyone's crops around them and have been sued and have paid the price, but the beat goes on

Please be so kind as to watch this video, if not the whole thing just the first two minutes:

[Wolferz]

GMO vegetables that will ease a headache?

[Jeff-Groves]

The Nazi's didn't go to the Moon after all!!

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

Glad you brought this up sky ... it is a big deal, but why is a big deal?

I looked at the surface of why, but I think it goes deeper than that with global warming and other scare factors thrown in this could be an even bigger deal.

Here's their surface reasons:http://www.agweb.com/article/why-bay...monsanto-blmg/



PS I hate Monsanto in Hawaii ... they are suspected of tainting everyone's crops around them and have been sued and have paid the price, but the beat goes on

Please be so kind as to watch this video, if not the whole thing just the first two minutes:

The bad reputation of Monsanto certainly is well deserved, the documentations of their malicious behaviours fill volumes, and it rates as one of the globally most hated US companies there are.

But my concern is more on the economic side here. Not many people seem to know that Monsanto is in troubled waters already, and the Germans have paid an insane price for it. I find it hard to imagine that the Germans even can get out their investment from this deal, not to mention generating additional profit. Aloso, Monsanto already is a lean compoany with streamline dstructure, you can win little by cutting jobs or restructuring the orgnbization. The potential there is very small, since the company already is very much optimised - but still in troubled waters.

It would not be the first time that a German heavyweight company spectacularly misjudges an American aquirement, or the American market situation. As I see it, Bayer allowed to get pulled over the table by a American management that played all its cards cleverly and to maximum gambling effect. And Monsanto won, they got the maximum possible for them.

I hope the deal gets torpedoed, by whomever. Else The German taxpayers in the end will crossfinance Bayer's over-ambitious adventure sooner or later, I think. Bayer is so huge that it is system-relevant for German economy, it will not be allowed to go rock-bottom.