Bayer to Sell Digital Farming, Seed Lines for Monsanto Deal

Bayer won U.S. antitrust approval on Tuesday to take over Monsanto on the condition that it sell about $9 billion in assets, the Justice Department said. The approval clears a major hurdle for the $62.5 billion deal.

Makan Delrahim, who heads the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said the asset sales agreed to by Bayer were the “largest ever divestiture required by the United States.”

In agreements with global antitrust enforcers, Bayer committed to sell its entire cotton, canola, soybean and vegetable seeds businesses and digital farming business, as well its Liberty herbicide, which competes with Monsanto’s Roundup.

Under agreements with European and other antitrust enforcers, Bayer has agreed to sell assets that include its seed and crop chemicals activities, with revenues of 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion), to rival BASF for 7.6 billion euros.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch