The Bayer-Monsanto merger

It’s a rare day that we have a German corporation rather than an American or Chinese one that’s getting its name in fat headlines on business news sites around the world. And this time it’s because of good news in contrast to the recent past. German pharmaceutical and drugs company Bayer has completed its takeover of Monsanto, the US agrichemicals giant, for which Bayer paid €56 billion ($63 billion). It’s the biggest takeover ever undertaken by a German company of a non-German company.

A hated brand disappears

The Monsanto brand has become almost a synonym for corporate evil amongst greenies, with its GMO crop plants (genetically modified organisms) tailor-made to tolerate the company’s herbicide, glyphosate(sold under the trade name Roundup).

Bayer’s takeover of Monsanto predictably generated cries of alarm and outrage by the usual critics of all things capitalist in general and genetic engineering in particular. All these terrible things taken together, they warned, are responsible for the suffering of farmers in developing countries. A monopoly is forming in agrochemicals and GMO crop species that will leave the farmers of the world with no real choices about how to grow their crops if they want to be profitable.

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