German pharmaceutical giant Bayer is to sell its e-agriculture activities to its competitor, BASF, to make it easier to obtain approval for its bid to take over Monsanto. Bayer confirmed on Wednesday that, as part of modifications to the commitments it made with the European Commission, the group will however keep its license for certain digital applications in the agriculture sector.
On the 21st of March, the Commission authorized the conditional purchase of the U.S. chemical giant Montsanto by Bayer. The transaction was conditioned on Bayer’s selling off a huge body of activities so as to correct the overlapping of the parties’ activities in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture.
Bayer is reportedly also close to obtaining a green light from the U.S. antitrust regulators.
The German pharmaceutical company hopes to finalise its purchase of Monsanto, for the price of US$60 billion (49 million euros), in this quarter.
The Brussels Times
