After a $66 billion merger, Monsanto is disappearing — sort of

German pharmaceutical and chemical company Bayer completed large volume transaction of $ 66 billion to swallow farming giant Monsanto.

The decline of names seems to be part of a strategic movement aimed at keeping a huge new company away from the negative publicity of Monsanto and GMO.

German pharmaceutical and chemical company Bayer completed large volume transaction of $ 66 billion to swallow farming giant Monsanto.

In Monday 's statement, Bayer said it is only called Bayer that it is planning to abandon Monsanto' s 117 title.

"Bayer is still a company name, Monsanto is no longer a company name," the company said. "The acquired product retains its brand name and becomes part of the Bayer product portfolio."

The decline of names seems to be part of a strategic move aimed at keeping new huge enterprises away from the negative publicity of Monsanto and GMO.

The first merger announced as part of the initiative to promote agricultural research and innovation in September 2016 was Bayer 's greatest acquisition in history and the farm business doubled.

For decades, the company has been exposed to public outrage and hatred related to the history of controversial trading with farmers and their distinctive role in promoting the GMO. Monsanto breakthrough the list of the 20 most disliked companies in the US this spring.

Liam Condon, who is responsible for Bayer CropScience said at a telephone conference with Monday reporters, "We were considering changing the name in the past," but apparently chosen not to change for cost reasons. did.

Mr. Condon said, "Monsanto's management has been a problem for a while ... I am trying to improve Monsanto's brand."

Monsanto spokesperson Christine Dixon said in a statement to the Commerce Department, "I am very proud of the performance of Monsanto and sincerely hope to continue accelerating agricultural innovation with a view to the future of Bayer It is said. " Insider He added that Monsanto is independently managing Bayer during the past.

Monsanto also invests in advanced tools for genetic editing that can be used for agricultural purpose to make cheaper and higher quality products. Many companies have stopped using genetically engineered organisms or other primitive genetic engineering methods to modulate crop DNA or switch to a more accurate method such as Crispr.

In March this year, Monsanto invested $ 125 million behind gene editing startup, Haven Baker, founder of Pairwise. Best business goal was to move the first fruit from Crispr to the grocery shelf. He expects this development to be completed within 5 to 10 years. It is a year. Tom Adams, vice president of global biotechnology at Monsanto, retired from this spring and became CEO of Pairwise.

It is divided into 1.49 billion dollars. In September, Monsanto agreed with Bayer's acquisition proposal of $ 66 billion. If approved by regulatory authorities, it will create a company that accounts for more than a quarter of the world's seed and pesticide market. Monsanto strives to complete the merger on Wednesday by the end of 2017 and stated that it is due to submit a merger related application to the EU by the end of this month. Bayer announced that it will sell the LibertyLink brand seed business to satisfy competitors' concerns for Monsanto's deal. Net income attributable to Monsanto increased to $ 108.4 million ($ 1.90 per share) from $ 771 million in the year-ago quarter ($ 1.63 per share). According to Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S data, except for certain items, Monsanto's earnings per share is $ 1.93, which is above the analyst's average forecast of $ 1.76.

Last week, Aspirin - Aficionado Bayer asked Monsanto an annual question of $ 66 billion (spoiler attention: she said yes). For average Americans, this message belongs to the title "If there is time to worry", this is fair. An announcement on merger of unconfirmed companies is not full news. They do not even have AirPod level news. In terms of context, the proposed Bayer-Monsanto merger will include at least four major mergers or acquisitions within a few weeks. First, ChemChina (a part of a large chemical company operated by the Chinese government) began to acquire European chemical company Syngenta. It was approved by US regulatory authorities. Then Dow Chemical and another European pesticide company DuPont, and two Canadian fertilizer giants Agrium and Potash Inc. announced that they would advance their merger plan.