Monsanto Takeover?

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Monsanto Takeover? Corporate Cabal's Control of Food Supply Continues Mergers like Bayer's rumored takeover of Monsanto 'would make it even harder for farmers, consumers and communities to build a vibrant, sustainable food system' http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/12/monsanto-takeover-corporate-cabals-control-food-supply-continues
Monsanto Comments on Recent Media Reports Wednesday May 18, 2016 http://news.monsanto.com/press-release/corporate/monsanto-comments-recent-media-reports
Monsanto Company (MON) Stock Surges on Bayer AG (ADR) Takeover Talks
Monsanto Company (MON) stock was up following news that Bayer AG (ADR) (BAYRY) is in talks to acquire it.
Monsanto, MON stockMedia reports started circulating news of the talks and Monsanto responded with its own statement on the matter. The company confirmed that it had received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Bayer for its acquisition.
MON’s Board of Directors are looking over the proposal and are consulting advisers. Morgan Stanley & Co. and Ducera Partners are financial advisers and the legal adviser is Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Bayer also released its own statement in response to Monsanto’s confirming its intention to acquire the company.
Monsanto’s current market capitalization is currently $42 billion, which means that any offer made by Bayer will likely be higher than this.
MON stock was up 5% as of Noon Thursday. http://investorplace.com/2016/05/monsanto-bayer-mon-stock/ Bayer-Monsanto bid may trigger more scrutiny for rival deals
yer's possible takeover of Monsanto isn't likely to raise significant antitrust hurdles by itself, but it could intensify global scrutiny of the handful of companies engaged in unprecedented consolidation across the crop-chemicals industry.
Even if Bayer could win approval for Monsanto, regulators may slow down all the deals as they assess how they would affect the overall market. Global competition regulators are already investigating the $130 billion merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont, while national security officials in the United States weigh China National Chemical Corp.'s bid to acquire Syngenta of Switzerland for $43 billion. Lawmakers in the U.S. were quick to raise concerns about both the Dow-Dupont and ChemChina-Syngenta tie-ups.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-monsanto-assess-da14b61e-1869-11e6-971a-dadf9ab18869-20160512-story.html

Bayer takeover of Monsanto would create global giant. BERLIN
Bayer's potential acquisition of Monsanto would create a giant seed and farm chemical company with a strong footprint in the U.S., Europe and Asia, combining two businesses with complementary geographical focus.
But Bayer might have to shed part of its business because of anti-trust concerns. And the price tag on any deal would be huge: Monsanto's market value is around $42 billion.
Germany-based Bayer AG said Thursday in a short statement that its executives had met recently with their Monsanto counterparts "to privately discuss a negotiated acquisition" of the specialist in genetically modified crop seeds.
The news of a potentially costly deal sent Bayer shares tumbling. They were down 8.6 percent at 88.10 euros in afternoon trading Europe time. Monsanto shares were 5.0 percent higher at $101.98 in New York. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/national-business/article78564317.html
If Bayer's bid succeed, creates a company that is the largest in seeds, agricultural pesticides, and very large in medicines and chemicals. Bayer is about three times as large as Monsanto. The turnover of the two companies together was in 2015 around 55 billion euros. So far, the two companies said only with each other in conversation. Guarantees on contract, or even an offer, there are not. Frankfurt popped the price of Bayer 9 percent down. On Wall Street increased the price of Monsanto by nearly 5 percent. In the sector of seeds and chemicals is a takeover battle underway that began late last year. Then it was Monsanto chose to attack. The Americans tried to incorporate the Swiss Syngenta. That combination was obvious, because both groups are almost entirely focused on the agriculture: seeds and pesticides. But Syngenta did not, and wrested himself from the grip of Monsanto. Shortly after the Chinese ChemChina made ​​an offer at Syngenta. It offered 40 billion, had done less than Monsanto, Syngenta, but this time it was agreed. The chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont merge. They are also strong in plant protection products. http://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/chemieconcern-bayer-wil-monsanto-inlijven~a4304057/
Bayer takeover of Monsanto would further shake up ag industry. Bayer's potential acquisition of Monsanto would create a giant seed and farm chemical company with a strong footprint in the U.S., Europe and Asia, combining two businesses with complementary geographical focus.
But Bayer might have to shed part of its business because of anti-trust concerns. And the price tag on any deal would be huge: Monsanto's market value is around $42 billion.
Germany-based Bayer AG said Thursday in a short statement that its executives had met recently with their Monsanto counterparts "to privately discuss a negotiated acquisition" of the specialist in genetically modified crop seeds.
The news is the latest evidence of a huge shakeup in the ag industry. DuPont and Dow Chemical agreed to combine last year, the first step in a plan that would merge Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences and DuPont's ag unit into a stand-alone public company. And in March ChemChina agreed to buy Syngenta of Switzerland.
News of the potential Bayer-Monsanto deal sent Bayer shares tumbling. They were down 8.6 percent at 88.10 euros in afternoon trading Europe time. Monsanto shares were 5.0 percent higher at $101.98 in New York.
Both companies are familiar brands on farms around the globe. Bayer, whose farm business produces seeds as well as compounds to kill weeds, bugs and fungus, said the proposed acquisition would help it "create a leading integrated agriculture business."
Monsanto, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri,said it was reviewing Bayer's proposal. Neither company gave other details. http://www.ibj.com/articles/58683-bayer-takeover-of-monsanto-would-further-shake-up-ag-industry
Bayer makes unsolicited bid for seed giant Monsanto
RIPE FOR TAKEOVER
Monsanto is particularly vulnerable to a takeover after piling up a mountain of problems this year. The company has cut its earnings forecast, clashed with some of the world's largest commodity-trading companies and become locked in disputes with the governments of Argentina and India. Shares are down 19 percent in the past 12 months.
“It's a relentless string of bad news,” said Jonas Oxgaard, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. “It's almost like they forgot to sacrifice a goat to the gods.”
A wave of deals is reshaping the seed and crop-chemicals industry. China National Chemical Corp. agreed in February to acquire Switzerland's Syngenta AG for about $43 billion, months after Monsanto abandoned its own bid for Syngenta. DuPont and Dow plan to merge in a $65.6 billion deal and then carve out a new crop-science unit.
RECORD DEALS
A completed acquisition would extend a record-setting pace of consolidation in the global chemicals sector, which has recorded $84 billion of deals this year as low crop prices encourage mergers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With a premium, a takeover of Monsanto could surpass ChemChina's purchase of Syngenta as the largest acquisition globally this year, the data show.
A price around $120 to $125 a share, representing a premium of 35 percent to 40 percent, probably would be needed to get a Bayer-Monsanto deal done, Bernstein analysts Jeremy Redenius and Ronny Gal wrote in a note to clients Thursday.
http://triblive.com/business/headlines/10498049-74/bayer-monsanto-billion

Bayer's Monsanto bid is big deal for Germany
FRANKFURT--Just over two weeks after taking over as chief executive of Bayer AG, Werner Baumann has initiated what could be the biggest foreign corporate takeover effort ever by a German company.
Bayer confirmed on Thursday that it had reached out to U.S. rival Monsanto Co. about a possible combination. The move was disclosed late on Wednesday by Monsanto.
While details of the deal are still unclear, any full takeover offer would be valued at more than $42 billion--Monsanto's current market capitalization--and would be the largest deal in Bayer's 150 year history.
It is a bold move for one of the handful of typically cautious, German conglomerates that dominate the corporate landscape here. But it is also in line with the strategy of recently departed Chief Executive Marijn Dekkers, who moved aggressively to shake up the staid pharmaceuticals-and-chemicals company to focus on life sciences.
Mr. Baumann, a 28-year Bayer veteran, inherited from Mr. Dekkers a slimmed-down and less risk-averse company, but also one with substantial debt, which could complicate the company's bid for Monsanto.
"Financially, it's a big stretch," said Markus Manns, a portfolio manager at Union Investment, a Bayer shareholder. "I'm not so sure it's a good move."
Bayer's net debt stood at EUR17.45 billion ($19.68 billion) in 2015, more than double the EUR7.01 billion net debt in 2011, before Bayer began a string of acquisitions. Its debt level last year was down roughly 11% from a high in 2014.
The company's shares were down nearly 8%, at EUR88.8, in midmorning trading.
Bayer's bid follows a flurry of deals in the global agrochemical industry. Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. last year announced a merger that the companies--together valued at roughly $103 billion--said would ultimately create one of the world's largest agrochemical companies.
Earlier this year, Chinese state-owned China National Chemical Corp. announced a $43 billion cash deal to acquire Syngenta AG, following a failed attempt by Monsanto to take over the Swiss agrochemicals group.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bayers-monsanto-bid-is-big-deal-for-germany-2016-05-19
German chemical giant Bayer reaches for Monsanto http://diepresse.com/home/wirtschaft/international/4991553/Deutscher-Chemieriese-Bayer-greift-nach-Monsanto

Fitch: Bayer-Monsanto Combination Challenged
A potential combination of chemical companies Bayer AG and Monsanto Company makes strategic sense given their complementary strengths, according to Fitch Ratings. However, Monsanto has a viable go-it-alone strategy to drive growth and Bayer is a larger, more diversified company whose growth is not solely dependent on agricultural drivers.
On Wednesday, Monsanto said it had received an unsolicited, nonbinding proposal from Bayer AG for a potential acquisition. The company said its board of directors is reviewing the proposal, but there was no assurance of entering into any transaction.
A merger this size, with a combined market capitalization greater than $125 billion, would result in crop protection, US soybean seeds and US corn seed market shares in excess of 25%, almost certainly drawing regulatory scrutiny and posing antitrust obstacles. However, the businesses are largely complementary, with herbicides the only potential concern. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fitch-bayer-monsanto-combination-challenged-163600988.html
Monsanto’s #Monsatan Factor and What Bayer Can Do About It
It’s been characterized variously as sinister, evil and a corporate bully. Surveys rank it among the most hated companies in America. And now Bayer AG wants to buy it.
The deal proposed by Bayer on Wednesday has an undeniable industrial logic, marrying its crop-chemicals operations with Monsanto Co.’s market-leading seed business to create the largest company of its kind. But if the takeover succeeds, Bayer will likely find itself in the crosshairs of Monsanto’s army of critics.
In the two decades that St. Louis-based Monsanto has sold genetically modified crops, it has become a lightning rod for environmental activists warning of the dangers of cultivating and consuming GMOs. It’s been attacked for the legal tactics used to enforce its patents, accused of being a factor in farmer suicides in India, and blamed for contributing to the decline of the monarch butterfly. And while Monsanto has rejected criticism in each case, the controversies have indelibly marked its image. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-20/monsanto-s-monsatan-factor-and-what-bayer-needs-to-do-about-it
Bayer’s Monsanto bid likely to face antitrust hurdles
Bayer AG’s offer to buy Monsanto Co., on the heels of two other giant agricultural deals, would put a significant share of the corn-seed and pesticide market in the hands of just three companies, raising concerns among U.S. farmers and legislators about more expensive products and fewer choices.
Germany’s Bayer BAYN, +0.91% on Thursday said it had approached St. Louis-based Monsanto about a possible deal. Details weren’t disclosed, but the bid would likely be above Monsanto’s current market valuation of $42 billion, making it the largest-ever German takeover of a foreign company. Monsanto MON, +3.52% said late Wednesday that its board would consider the unsolicited approach, and declined to comment further on Thursday.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bayers-monsanto-bid-likely-to-face-antitrust-hurdles-2016-05-19?siteid=rss&rss=1
Why Bayer Wants Monsanto. Grant believes agriculture is very much a part of the new industrial revolution, and the successful company of the future will need to use data about soil and weather to offer farmers precise and targeted advice about the seeds and chemicals they need to use. The company of the future won’t just be selling seeds and chemicals, but seeds and chemicals and data as a service. That’s why Monsanto acquired the Climate Company; that’s why it attempted, unsuccessfully, to buy Swiss-based chemical company Syngenta SYT -0.62% ; and that’s why Bayer is now after Monsanto. http://fortune.com/2016/05/19/bayer-monsanto-merger-approach-brainstorm/
How Monsanto's CEO Thinks We Can Feed the World. The world’s agricultural industry has a tall order to fill—it must grow twice as much on roughly the same footprint with less water all by 2050.
Monsanto MON 3.52% CEO Hugh Grant, calling himself a “Scottish optimist—a rare condition,” thinks we can get there, but “not on our own, despite some of the coverage.” http://fortune.com/2016/05/17/monsanto-ceo-feeding-planet/?iid=sr-link5
Chemical Company Troubles
SUBHEAD: Kauai demonstration against Monsanto and other chemical food corporations.
http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2016/05/chemical-company-troubles.html

#FuckPfizer #FuckTheSystem pretty much #FuckEverything
Tnx 2 Rebecca Bradley 4 the share
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/12/monsanto-takeover-corporate-cabals-control-food-supply-continues