Bayer, meanwhile, might be familiar to many for its aspirin products — but it's also a major player in pesticides. As the Two-Way has reported, "the company is a German pharmaceutical and chemical powerhouse with 102,000 employees and $41 billion in revenue last year. Like Monsanto, it sells agricultural products such as seeds and pesticides. That's in addition to a plastics business, diagnostic imaging products, health products for animals and a biotech division."
The purchase is part of "a dramatic wave of consolidation among the companies that sell seeds and pesticides to farmers," as NPR's Dan Charles puts it.
"Two other such deals are currently in the works," Dan explains. "DuPont is merging with Dow, and the China National Chemical Corp. is buying Syngenta, which is currently the world's biggest seller of agricultural chemicals."
The Bayer-Monsanto deal might have interesting cultural consequences, as well
Monsanto, Dan notes, "has come to represent, in a shorthand way, lots of things that some people love to hate: genetically modified food; patents on seeds; lawsuits against farmers for saving and replanting those seeds; and corporate influence over government food policy."
The following is an illustration of the company’s major mergers, acquisitions and historical predecessors:
Bayer
Bayer AG
(Founded 1863)
Miles Laboratories
(Acq 1978)
Miles Canada
Cutter Laboratories
Hollister-Stier
Corn King Company
Plastron Specialties
Pacific Plastics Company
Olympic Plastics Company
Ashe-Lockhart Inc
Haver-Glover Laboratories
Cutter Laboratories
(Founded 1897)
Sterling Winthrop
(Acq 1994, Over the counter division)
Roche Pharmaceuticals
(Acq 2004, Over the counter division)
Bayer Schering Pharma AG
Schering
(Acq 2006)
Jenapharm
Sagmel Inc
(Spun off 2008)
Bomac Group
(Acq 2010)
Algeta
(Acq 2014)
Merck & Co
(Acq 2014, Consumer Health Business)
Covestro
(Spun off 2016)
Muti nationals are not the friend of middle class Americans or Traditional Values.
Thorough article covering Bayer Monsanto evil deeds:
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/bayer-monsanto/
Great. Put the Germans in charge of the chemicals.
Good thing we have anti-trust laws! Whew, we really dodged a bullet here!
fl