Monsanto rejects Bayer’s latest acquisition attempt

Jul 19, 2016

Company calls the proposal “financially inadequate”

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Monsanto rejected Bayer’s latest acquisition proposal.

The company said the offer, estimated to be worth about $65 billion, isn’t enough to finalize a deal.

“(Monsanto’s) Board of Directors unanimously views Bayer AG’s revised proposal as financially inadequate and insufficient to ensure deal certainty,” it said in a release.

Despite rejecting the offer, Monsanto isn’t completely shutting the door on a possible merger.

“Monsanto remains open to continued and constructive conversations with Bayer and other parties to assess whether a transaction that the Board believes is in the best interest of Monsanto shareowners can be realized.”

Rejected

Bayer is upset with Monsanto’s ruling.

In a press release, Bayer said it’s “disappointed in Monsanto’s decision to reject its increased all-cash offer of USD 125 per share, which represents a 40 percent premium over Monsanto’s closing share price on May 9, 2016.”

Bayer said it’s looking forward to further dialogue with Monsanto.

Analysts say regulators may try to stop any deal between the two companies.

"We're on record saying we don't think there's more than a 10 percent chance that these two companies are coming together," Mark Connelly, an analyst at CLSA Americas told CNBC on July 14. "We're in an environment where Washington has been blocking a lot of deals lately."

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