Deals
Monsanto to Focus on Technology as Syngenta Merger Slips Away
- Farming app, new biotech seeds targeted as source of growth
- Monsanto `is better off having not overpaid' for Swiss rival
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Monsanto Co. wanted Syngenta AG so badly it pursued the pesticide producer for four years and made three separate takeover offers. Yet losing out to a Chinese bidder could be the best outcome for the seed company.
State-owned China National Chemical Corp.’s agreement Wednesday to buy Syngenta for about $43 billion ends Monsanto Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant’s vision of combining the Swiss company’s weed- and bug-killing chemicals with the world’s largest genetically modified seed business.