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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday September 15 2016, @02:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the gimme-an-aspirin dept.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-deal-idUSKCN11K128

German drugs and crop chemicals company Bayer has won over U.S. seeds firm Monsanto with an improved takeover offer of $66 billion including debt, ending months of wrangling after increasing its bid for a third time. The $128 a share deal announced on Wednesday, up from Bayer's previous offer of $127.50 a share, is the biggest of the year so far and the largest cash bid on record.

The transaction will create a company commanding more than a quarter of the combined world market for seeds and pesticides in a fast-consolidating farm supplies industry. However, competition authorities are likely to scrutinize the tie-up closely, and some of Bayer's own shareholders have been critical of a takeover plan which they say is too expensive and risks neglecting the company's pharmaceutical business.

"Bayer's competitors are merging, so not doing this deal would mean having a competitive disadvantage," said Markus Manns, a fund manager at Union Investment, one of Bayer's top 12 investors, according to ThomsonReuters data.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:45PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:45PM (#402322) Journal

    Monsanto is facing some lawsuits, which it may or may not be able to win. They see an advantage to merging with Bayer, and letting Bayer fight the legal battles.

    But, no matter how true or false that may be - I wasn't expecting Monsanto to be bought up by anyone. I thought they were a damend big fish in the ocean to start with. I guess any corp can be bought and sold though. They are all in it for the money, and damn everything else.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:52PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:52PM (#402325) Journal

    Monsanto tried to purchase Syngenta [wikipedia.org] for $40 billion. That deal fell through, and the Chinese state-owned ChemChina ended up buying Syngenta for $43 billion.

    This is the 3rd chemical gigamerger after that one and DowDuPont [wikipedia.org], which is going to be split up.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:57PM (#402331)

    Have any of the presidential candidates promised to beef up anti-trust?

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:04PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:04PM (#402334) Journal

      If I had to guess, it would be Jill Stein.

      Both Stein and Johnson have filed an antitrust suit [cnn.com] against the Commission on Presidential Debates, which messes with the search results a bit.

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      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:24PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:24PM (#402345)

        > If I had to guess, it would be Jill Stein.

        Clinton. [qz.com]

        I will prevent concentration in the first place by beefing up the antitrust enforcement arms of the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. I will direct more resources to hire aggressive regulators who will conduct in-depth industry research to better understand the link between market consolidation and stagnating incomes. Ultimately, this will foster a change in corporate culture that restores competition to the marketplace.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @07:07PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @07:07PM (#402416)

          If only I could actually believe that Ms Goldman Sachs means that beyond, "Don't vote for Bernie, I'm just a left as he is."

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @07:17PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @07:17PM (#402420)

            At least she went officially on the record.
            That's the basis for holding politicians accountable.

            • (Score: 4, Informative) by Geotti on Thursday September 15 2016, @08:48PM

              by Geotti (1146) on Thursday September 15 2016, @08:48PM (#402466) Journal

              "I will close Gitmo," "no (more) boots in Iraq and Syria," "get out of Afghanistan" say what? Sorry, but nobody will remember her populistic promises, once she starts WWIII.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @09:36PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @09:36PM (#402486)

                > "I will close Gitmo," "no (more) boots in Iraq and Syria," "get out of Afghanistan" say what?

                Don't be that dumbass who thinks that if 100% of promises are not kept then no promises were kept.
                Guys like make it easier for politicians to bail on their promises because if they get no credit, why bother keeping any promises?

                http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/ [politifact.com]
                Promise Kept      45%
                Compromise        25%
                Promise Broken    22%
                Stalled            2%
                In the Works       6%

                • (Score: 3, Insightful) by t-3 on Friday September 16 2016, @12:22AM

                  by t-3 (4907) on Friday September 16 2016, @12:22AM (#402545)

                  These statistics mean nothing. The promises Obama made loudest, the most times, in front of the most people, were the ones he broke. Whether or not he was "mostly honest" overall taking all his statements at an equal ranking doesn't matter, because the promises that carried weight with the electorate were broken, and he allowed political gridlock and bs to give us a raw deal on the one major promise he kept/tried to keep.

                  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @12:35AM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @12:35AM (#402550)

                    > he allowed political gridlock and bs to give us a raw deal on the one major promise he kept/tried to keep.

                    Yeah, he allowed gridlock.
                    Its insights like that which keep me coming back to soylent.

                    • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Friday September 16 2016, @04:34AM

                      by t-3 (4907) on Friday September 16 2016, @04:34AM (#402619)

                      Obama/Romney/WTF-Care was worse for mostly everyone. Rather than scrap the whole thing when it gets to that point, Obama and the Democrats pushed it through and called it a victory. So yes, he allowed gridlock to fuck over the people he was purportedly helping. Not "allowed gridlock", but "allowed gridlock to fuck over"... but reading comprehension is a bit much to expect from an AC I guess.

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 16 2016, @02:46PM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 16 2016, @02:46PM (#402804) Journal

          the woman "pivots" so often, you don't even know which side of her mouth she is talking out of. The last time I believed anything she said was - ohhhh - let me think - well, I don't guess I EVER believed anything she said.

  • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:59PM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:59PM (#402332)

    When I worked at Anheuser-Busch we thought that as well. We're AB! We're profitable! We make money hand over fist! We're not getting bought by some foreign company that's barely even the same size as we are! That's crazy!
     
    Six months later and we were lined up to welcome our new Brazilian banker overlords from Belgium. So yea, even a whale can get bought out if a another whale can get the financing lined up.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:27PM (#402347)

      That's the beauty of a leveraged buyout. The company's own value is the collateral for the loan to purchase it.

  • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday September 15 2016, @05:22PM

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Thursday September 15 2016, @05:22PM (#402371)

    I guess any corp can be bought and sold though. They are all in it for the money, and damn everything else.

    Most likely scenario is that the largest stockholders figure the risk of loss from the lawsuits is higher than the certain pay off from selling out now, so they are skipping out on the company.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 16 2016, @02:49PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 16 2016, @02:49PM (#402807) Journal

      Yes, that's exactly how the talk show host painted the picture. Exactly. Let Bayer handle any costs, including settlements, we've already got ours.