Bayer [offers to buy] bought Monsanto under EU approval

[MorningSong]

Wow! What a slam! Is Europe's non-GMO stance in danger now? Is this just a way to get the TTIP passed? I doubt that if this take-over goes through, Bayer (Germany) will stop the GMO seed production, et al... but, what if...?

Business | Thu May 19, 2016 1:15pm EDT
Related: Deals, Campaign Finance
Bayer offers to buy Monsanto in global agrochemicals shakeout
NEW YORK/FRANKFURT | By Greg Roumeliotis and Mike Stone

German drugs and chemicals group Bayer has made an unsolicited takeover proposal to U.S. seeds company Monsanto, aiming to create the world's biggest agricultural supplier and take advantage of converging pesticides and seeds markets.

Monsanto disclosed the approach on Wednesday before Bayer confirmed its move, though neither released proposed terms.

The $42 billion market capitalization of Monsanto means that the deal would be likely to eclipse ChemChina's planned acquisition of Swiss agrichemicals company Syngenta -- a target Monsanto itself pursued last year -- and could face U.S. antitrust hurdles.

A Monsanto statement said that its board was reviewing the proposal, which is subject to due diligence, regulatory approvals and other conditions. There is no assurance that any transaction will take place, it added.

Bayer shares dropped more than 8 percent to a 2-1/2 year low of 88.39 euros in early Thursday trading, with some investors worried by the potential cost of a deal.

Monsanto shares were seen 7.6 percent higher at $104.50 in pre-market trades.

UBS Global Asset Management, which Reuters data shows is among Bayer's 30 biggest investors, said it was "deeply concerned" about the burden on Bayer's finances from a takeover, saying it would prefer the companies to agree a joint venture or a nil-premium merger.

Deutsche Bank analysts said a deal could shift Bayer's center of gravity to agriculture, accounting for about 55 percent of core earnings, up from roughly 28 percent last year excluding the Covestro chemicals business Bayer plans to sell.

That would have a negative impact on sentiment among Bayer's healthcare-focused investor base, the bank said.

PRICE ESTIMATES

Bayer, which has a market value of $90 billion, said the merger would create "a leading integrated agriculture business", referring to Bayer's push to seek more synergies from combining the development and sale of seeds and crop protection chemicals.

Most of the major agrichemical companies are aiming to genetically engineer more robust plants and custom-build chemicals to go with them, selling them together to farmers who are struggling to contend with low commodity prices.

While no takeover price was mentioned by either company, Bernstein Research analyst Jeremy Redenius estimated that it would be 41.9 billion euros ($47 billion), plus 6.7 billion euros in assumed debt. He said that Bayer might need a 27 billion euro share issue to help to fund the purchase.

Citi analysts have said that Bayer would probably need to pay 14-16 times Monsanto's core earnings, implying a takeover price including debt of 57 billion euros to 65 billion euros.

A sale of Bayer's stake in foam chemicals maker Covestro could raise about 4 billion euros, while its animal health business, which Bayer has said it might put on the block, could fetch up to 7 billion euros.

The proposal comes as ChemChina's deal for Syngenta faces regulatory review in the United States over concerns about the security of U.S. food supply.

Any deal between Bayer and Monsanto, which would be Bayer's largest by far and dwarf the 17 billion euro takeover of drugmaker Schering in 2006, could raise U.S. antitrust concerns because of an overlap in seeds business, particularly in soybeans, cotton and canola, antitrust experts have said.

The proposal comes less than three weeks after Werner Baumann took over as Bayer chief executive, a sign of the power base he built in his previous role as strategy chief.

Bayer, the inventor of aspirin and maker of Yasmin birth control pills, is far more diversified than Syngenta or Monsanto, with products including cancer drugs, flea and tick collars for pets and Coppertone sunscreen. Some analysts have said a deal with Monsanto could lead to a break up of the group.

Bayer's crop science division has businesses in seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control, potentially complementing Monsanto's seeds assets.

BAYER, BASF AMBITIONS

Both Bayer and German rival BASF SE have been looking to build scale in agrichemicals. Monsanto said after its failure to land Syngenta that it didn't need to do a deal, but it has also been involved in discussions.

Monsanto approached Bayer this year to express interest in the latter's crop science unit, in the form of an acquisition or joint venture, sources told Reuters in March.

Both Bayer and BASF had been exploring tie-ups with Monsanto for months but valuation concerns have made a deal elusive, sources have said.

Bayer is ranked No. 2 in crop chemicals, with an 18 percent market share, just behind Syngenta on 19 percent, industry data shows.

Monsanto is the leader in seeds, with a 26 percent market share, followed by DuPont with 21 percent. DuPont agreed last year to merge with Dow Chemical. Any Bayer-Monsanto deal would further reduce the number of major players in seeds and pesticides to four from six.

Morgan Stanley and Ducera Partners are financial advisers to Monsanto, the company said in its statement, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is legal adviser.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mo...-idUSKCN0YA054

[DNA]

Wasn't Bayer the company Jane Burgermeister stated were trying to send out immunizations that were going to infect folks instead of immunize them, for which she was thrown into a psychiatric ward for?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PelTWCUmTsU

[cursichella1]

No surprise here. Let's not forget Bayer's parent was I.G. Farben, a "former" massive chemical monopoly with historical connections to Adolf Hitler, Nazis, Standard Oil, The Bush Family, The Holocaust, Flouride, the opium trade,...one of the deeper, more sinister rabbit holes.

Bayer also had the first trademark on Heroin. See article on Bayer - Heroin® and Aspirin® Many researchers (Joseph P. Farrell, Peter Levenda,...) believe the relationship with a Nazi element continues to this day. See transcript of Farrell's "Nazi International" Project Camelot interview with Bill Ryan.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=1wJboIFKCFU

A Bayer-Monsanto marriage is evil enough. Passage of the TTIP would usher in the NWO and needs to be stopped.



Here's a brief summary for those unfamiliar with I.G. Farben from Bibliotecapleyades.net:

IG Farben (short for Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG) ("syndicate of dyestuff corporations") (and also called I.G. Farbenfabriken) was a German conglomerate of companies formed in 1925 and even earlier during World War I.

Farben is German for "paints", "dyes", or "colors", and initially many of these companies produced dyes, but soon began to embrace more advanced chemistry.

The founding of IG Farben was a reaction to Germany's defeat in World War I.

IG Farben held a near total monopoly on chemical production, later during the National Socialist (Nazi) regime, including manufacturing Zyklon B poison for the gas chambers.

Before the war the dyestuff companies had a near monopoly in the world market which they lost during the conflict. One solution for regaining this position was a large merger.

IG Farben consisted of the following major companies and several smaller ones.
AGFA (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation), Berlin
Cassella, Frankfurt
BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik), Ludwigshafen
Bayer, Leverkusen
Farbwerke Hoechst (now Sanofi-Aventis), Höchst
Chemische Werke Hüls, Marl (founded in 1938)
Chemische Fabrik Kalle, Biebrich

Collaboration with the Nazis

During the planning of the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, IG Farben cooperated closely with Nazi officials and directed which chemical plants should be secured and delivered to IG Farben.

In 1941, an investigation exposed a "marriage" between United States-based Standard Oil Co. and I.G. Farben. It also brought new evidence concerning complex price and marketing agreements between duPont, a major investor in and producer of leaded gasoline, U.S. Industrial Alcohol Co. and their subsidiary, Cuba Distilling Co.

The investigation was eventually dropped, like dozens of others in many different kinds of industries, due to the need to enlist industry support in the war effort. However, the top directors of many oil companies agreed to resign and oil industry stocks in molasses companies were sold off as part of a compromise worked out.

IG Farben built a factory for producing synthetic oil and rubber (from coal) in Auschwitz, which was the beginning of SS activity and camps in this location during the Holocaust.

At its peak in 1944, this factory made use of 83,000 forced laborers.
The pesticide Zyklon B, for which IG Farben held the patent, was manufactured by Degesch (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung), which IG Farben had 42.2 percent (in shares) of and which had IG managers in its Managing Committee.

Of the 24 directors of IG Farben indicted in the so-called IG Farben Trial (1947-1948) before a U.S. military tribunal at the subsequent Nuremberg Trials, 13 were sentenced to prison terms between 1½ and eight years.

Bibliotecapleyades.net

[MorningSong]

Well... it looks like it's a done deal... very sad for Europe. I don't think the GMO banning will continue... unless miracles happen.

Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

14 September 2016
German chemicals giant Bayer has confirmed its record-breaking $66bn takeover of GM seeds business Monsanto - a deal that would create the world's biggest seeds and pesticides company.

The offer, a record cash takeover, values Monsanto shares at $128 and will create a company worth $66bn (£50bn).

As well as farm-products, Bayer also sells healthcare products including Alka-Seltzer.

Monsanto is known for its genetically modified seeds for crops.

The use of such seeds is widespread in the US, but plans to introduce these into Europe have prompted fierce protests by environmental activists.

Bayer said feeding the world's population, which is expected to rise by around a third by 2050, was a massive challenge.

Werner Baumann, chief executive of Bayer, said the takeover would bring benefits across the board and deliver "substantial value to shareholders, our customers, employees and society at large"

Fight back

The tie-up, which will give the new company control of more than 25% of the world's supply of seeds and pesticides, comes amid a wave of mergers in the agriculture sector.

Falling crop prices have seen farmers cutting back on buying seeds and agricultural chemicals, such as herbicides and pesticides, leading to lower profits for suppliers.

The industry has been fighting back in order to save business costs.

Rivals including Dow Chemical, DuPont and Syngenta have all announced tie-ups recently, although some have yet to be cleared by regulators.

Bayer's takeover of Monsanto is likely itself to attract close scrutiny from anti-competition regulators because of the sheer size of the combined company and the control it would have over the global seeds and sprays markets.
'Frankenstein'

Farming groups have raised concerns that such mergers could lead to fewer choices and higher prices.

Professor John Colley of Warwick Business School said: "Bayer's acquisition of 'Frankenstein' crop producer Monsanto could be a horror story for both Bayer and its customers: the farmers."

He said there were a number of worrying issues: "The farmers will lose out as product ranges are rationalised and attempts are made to increase prices.

"Clearly Bayer will realise cost savings from the acquisition, but they have had to pay an enormous price for Monsanto at a 45% premium to the previously undisturbed share price."

There is a $2bn break fee if the deal does not complete.

Bayer shares are 3% higher in Frankfurt. Monsanto shares were up 1.6% ahead of the US market open.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37361556

Thu Sep 15, 2016 6:22am EDT
Bayer clinches Monsanto with improved $66 billion bid

By Greg Roumeliotis and Ludwig Burger

(Story refiles to change day of Potash/Agrium deal in paragraph 21 of September 14th story to Monday from Tuesday)

By Greg Roumeliotis and Ludwig Burger

German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer clinched a $66 billion takeover of U.S. seeds company Monsanto on Wednesday, ending months of wrangling with a third sweetened offer that marks the largest all-cash deal on record.

The $128-a-share deal, up from Bayer's previous offer of $127.50 a share, has emerged as the signature deal in a consolidation race that has roiled the agribusiness sector in recent years, due to shifting weather patterns, intense competition in grain exports and a souring global farm economy.

"Bayer’s competitors are merging, so not doing this deal would mean having a competitive disadvantage," said fund manager Markus Manns of Union Investment, one of Bayer’s top 12 investors.

Grain prices are hovering near their lowest levels in years amid a global supply glut, and farm incomes have plunged.

But the proposed merger will likely face an intense and lengthy regulatory process in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the European Union and elsewhere. Hugh Grant, Monsanto's chief executive, said Wednesday the companies will need to file in about 30 jurisdictions for the merger.

Competition authorities are likely to scrutinize the tie-up closely, and some of Bayer's own shareholders have been highly critical of a takeover that they say risks overpaying and neglecting the company's pharmaceutical business.

If the deal closes, it will create a company commanding more than a quarter of the combined world market for seeds and pesticides in the fast-consolidating farm supplies industry.

What the newly-formed company would be named is unclear.

Grant said on Wednesday's media conference call that the future of the Monsanto brand has not yet been discussed, but the world's largest seed company is "flexible" about the name going forward.

The transaction includes a $2-billion break-up fee that Bayer will pay to Monsanto should it fail to get regulatory clearance. Bayer expects the deal to close by the end of 2017.

The details confirm what a source close to the matter told Reuters earlier.

Baader Helevea Equity Research analyst Jacob Thrane, with a "sell" rating on Bayer, said the German company was paying 16.1 times Monsanto's forecast core earnings for 2017, more than the 15.5 times ChemChina agreed to pay for Swiss crop chemicals firm Syngenta last year. He also said there was uncertainty over what the combined company would look like as regulators might demand asset sales.

Bernstein Research analysts said on Tuesday they saw only a 50 percent chance of the deal winning regulatory clearance, although they cited a survey among investors that put the likelihood at 70 percent on average.

"We believe political push-back to this deal, ranging from farmer dissatisfaction with all their suppliers consolidating in the face of low farm net incomes to dissatisfaction with Monsanto leaving the United States, could provide significant delays and complications," they wrote in a research note.

Bayer said it was offering a 44-percent premium to Monsanto's share price on May 9, the day before it made its first written proposal.

It plans to raise $19 billion to help fund the deal by issuing convertible bonds and new shares to its existing shareholders, and said banks had also committed to providing $57 billion of bridge financing.

Bayer shares rose 0.3 percent to 93.55 euros. Monsanto's were up 0.6 percent at $106.76.

ONE-STOP SHOP

Bayer's move to combine its crop chemicals business, the world's second-largest after Syngenta AG, with Monsanto's industry-leading seeds business, is the latest in a series of major agrochemicals tie-ups.

The German company is aiming to create a one-stop shop for seeds, crop chemicals and computer-aided services to farmers.

That was also the idea behind Monsanto's swoop on Syngenta last year, which the Swiss company fended off, only to agree later to a takeover by China's state-owned ChemChina.

U.S. chemicals giants Dow Chemical and DuPont plan to merge and later spin off their respective seeds and crop chemicals operations into a major agribusiness.

And on Monday, Canadian fertilizer producers Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc and Agrium Inc agreed to combine to navigate a severe industry slump, but the new company's potential pricing power may attract tough regulatory scrutiny.

The Bayer-Monsanto deal will be the largest ever involving a German buyer, beating Daimler's tie-up with Chrysler in 1998, which valued the U.S. carmaker at more than $40 billion. It will also be the largest all-cash transaction on record, ahead of brewer InBev's $60.4 billion offer for Anheuser-Busch in 2008.

Bayer said it expected the deal to boost its core earnings per share in the first full year following completion, and by a double-digit percentage in the third year.

Bayer and Monsanto were in talks to sound out ways to combine their businesses as early as March, which culminated in Bayer's initial $122 per-share takeover proposal in May.

Antitrust experts have said regulators will likely demand the sale of some soybeans, cotton and canola seed assets.

Bayer said BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and JP Morgan had committed to providing the bridge financing.

BofA Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse are acting as lead financial advisers to Bayer, with Rothschild as an additional adviser. Bayer's legal advisers are Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Allen & Overy LLP.

Morgan Stanley and Ducera Partners are acting as financial advisers to Monsanto, with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz its legal adviser.

(Additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington D.C., and Karl Plume and P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago.; Editing by Mark Potter and Nick Zieminski)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mo...-idUSKCN11K128

[DeDukshyn]

Bayer is just as evil as Monsanto, if not, more so ... this is not good ...

[conk]

The name Monsanto has garnered such a bad reputation they had to dissolve it. Just like the company that sold Aspartame to the Japanese and the recent introduction of a new name for Aspartame. Got to keep the consumers ignorant and confused.

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by conk (here)
The name Monsanto has garnered such a bad reputation they had to dissolve it. Just like the company that sold Aspartame to the Japanese and the recent introduction of a new name for Aspartame. Got to keep the consumers ignorant and confused.

Bayer has an extremely poor track record in humanity and decency, they have clearly shown that their profits are waaay more important to them than any human life or any group of human's lives. Just look at all the court proceedings between Bayer and India's court system and you will see that Bayer is the exact same "type" of company that a POS criminal like Shkreli would love to be involved with ... Screw all the sick people to maximize profit .. .and if the sick can't afford it with thousands of percent markup, then **** them. This is Bayer's attitude, and with a little research is no secret.

[onawah]

Bayer buys Monsanto: the Empire strikes back
9/16/16
by Jon Rappoport

This is the largest corporate cash buyout in history.

Mega-giant Bayer put $66 billion on the table, and mega-giant Monsanto said yes.

Think GMOs, crop seeds, pesticides, medical drugs.

Keep in mind that one of the consultants on the European side of this deal is the Rothschild Group.

But that’s not all. Dow and DuPont are planning to merge. Recently, another biotech giant, Syngenta, was swallowed up by the state-owned ChemChina. And this just in: two major Canadian fertilizer manufacturers, Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc. and Agrium Inc. are merging.

Consolidation, monopoly. The Empire strikes back.

The global rebellion against GMOs and pesticides, particularly Monsanto’s Roundup, is one of the reasons for these deals. But lurking in the background is another factor, exemplified by the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty.

If the TPP passes, corporate tribunals will take over the adjudication of disputes in which a nation rejects importing toxic pesticides, medical drugs, or GMOs. These tribunals will decide whether that nation is permitted to refuse importation.

Of course, the tribunals will favor mega-corporate interests. But now, with the mergers involving Bayer, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, and ChemChina, the devastating clout of the tribunals will be that much more powerful.

The ability to shove toxic products down the throats of populations will elevate.

This is the corporate face of Globalism.

This is a giant step in the direction of controlling the world’s food supply.

You can draw another arrow connecting these corporations to Bill Gates, whose foundation avidly supports their efforts.

If Gates and George Soros still own the Monsanto stock they bought in 2010— 900,000 and 500,000 shares, respectively—they just received a nice chunk of pocket change from the Bayer buyout. As part of the deal, every Monsanto share will suddenly be worth $22 more than yesterday’s price.

Jon Rappoport

[Atlas]

Monsanto rejects Bayer multi-billion dollar bid

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fuKnchgiVPU

[norman]

Oh !... I see...

Good Cop, Bad Cop .

[onawah]

That's from May. The situation has changed now.

Posted by Atlas (here)
Monsanto rejects Bayer multi-billion dollar bid

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fuKnchgiVPU

See: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...=1#post1098823

[Atlas]

Bayer CEO Werner Baumann and Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant Discuss Bayer’s Agreement to Acquire Monsanto

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jCMuFXaXG5U

[Chester]

Odds are high the acquisition will not be approved (allowed).

[Hervé]

EU approves Bayer's $62.5bn takeover of GMO & pesticide evil giant Monsanto

RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 17:54 UTC

Activists from the environmental organization Friends of the Earth Europe stage a 'marriage made in hell' during an action in front of the European Commission against Bayer and Monsanto in Brussels. © Eric Vidal / Reuters

Germany's Bayer won EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its multi-billion-dollar purchase of Monsanto. The mega-merger is expected to reshape the agrochemicals industry.

The deal will create a giant company with control of more than a quarter of the world's seed and pesticides market.

The European Commission said Bayer had addressed its concerns with an offer to sell a swathe of assets to boost rival BASF. Bayer pledged to sell certain seed and herbicide assets for €5.9 billion ($7.2 billion) to BASF and to give it a license to its digital farming data.

"Our decision ensures that there will be effective competition and innovation in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture markets also after this merger," said European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

"In particular, we have made sure that the number of global players actively competing in these markets stays the same," she added.

The Bayer-Monsanto deal has been strongly criticized by environmentalists and farming groups. "This is a marriage made in hell. The Commission ignored a million people who called on them to block this deal, and caved in to lobbying to create a mega-corporation which will dominate our food supply," Nick Flynn, legal director of online campaigns group Avaaz, told Reuters.

According to Vestager, the Commission has received more than a million petitions concerning the deal. It had been thorough by examining more than 2,000 different product markets and 2.7 million internal documents to produce a 1,285-page ruling, she said.

Pharmaceuticals giant Bayer agreed to acquire Monsanto two years ago. It vowed not to take advantage of its own reputation to forcefully introduce genetically modified crops to Europe against consumers' will. Monsanto has a longstanding notorious reputation dating back to its production of Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant chemical used by the US military during the Vietnam War.

SOTT Comment: See also: Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine files suit against Monsanto for concealing the toxic effects of PCB chemicals

The Monsanto corporation knew that prolonged exposure to PCBs could produce 'systemic toxic effects' back in 1937! And even after the EPA ban back in the 1970's the toxicity persists. Several cities across the US have filed similar lawsuits, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Oaklandand Berkeley. As the company clearly stated above 'we will defend ourselves aggressively' and always play dirty!

• Monsanto's dirty dealings - chemical reform bill could grant the evil empire legal immunity for PCB pollution - As noted by The Environmental Working Group: "Slipped at the last minute into the House version, H.R. 2576, of a bill to update the broken Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 is a provision that could shield the company from liability for decades of pollution with a family of chemicals made only by Monsanto: polychlorinated biphenyls, better known as PCBs. While the insertion was so subtle many lawmakers probably did not even notice it, the implications of the Monsanto bailout clause are huge. The implications of the provision - added at the last minute - are significant enough that perhaps it should be called the "Monsanto bailout clause."

• 'Poison Papers': Monsanto knew of grave health risks from toxic PCB chemicals it sold for years before ban - As far back as 1969, an internal policy document admitted "damage to the ecological system by contamination from PCBs," and stated that "evidence proving the persistence of these compounds and their universal presence in the environment is beyond questioning." The non-biodegradable nature of PCBs, which are still found both in water and in soil worldwide, has since turned out to be one of its most serious legacies. "Direct lawsuits are possible... because customers using the products have not been officially notified about known effects nor do our labels carry this information," read the assessment. At the end of the document, the author provides Monsanto with three solutions: Do Nothing ("poor customer relations" and "potential loss of business"), Discontinue Manufacture ("not that simple") and presumably the option the company chose: Respond responsibly by phasing out the product ("maximizing the corporate image by publicizing this fact"). "At the end of the day, Monsanto went for the profits instead of for public health and environmental safety," said Sherman.

[Joe from the Carolinas]

Thanks for the update. The execs at Bayer wanted Monsanto products so bad, now they’re gonna get them. So I got two words for the buggers:

Them first!

Let the bayer execs eat the poison foods, let’s see how they like it.

[Bob]

More on Bayer, they do make more than "Bayer Aspirin"...

http://regenerationvermont.org/monsa...-agent-orange/

Bayer’s purchase is aimed at steadying a reeling Monsanto, which is mired in turmoil from a long list of objectionable activities involving toxic pesticides and its increasingly unpopular genetically-modified organisms.

Ironically, given its own sullied past includes Nazi sympathizing and marketing heroin-laced cough syrup for children.

Bayer is being portrayed as the one riding to the rescue of Monsanto’s poor public image.

If anything, it’s a sign of just how low the Monsanto brand and reputation has plummeted, forcing it to try and improve its image by sidling up to Bayer, a participant in some of the cruelest crimes in human history.

Bayer’s history, beginning in 1904, when it joined with the other German giants BASF and AGFA, the largest chemical and film corporations in the world at the time, formed the first chemical cartel, often referred to as Baby Farben. Then, after Germany’s loss in the First World War, and under the leadership of Bayer’s Carl Duisberg, the nation’s entire chemical industry was merged to become IG Farben.

It was instantly the world’s largest cartel at the time and the biggest corporation in Europe. IG Farben was also decidedly conservative and opposed the more liberal policies of the Weimar Republic. Instead, large donations from IG Farben corporations went to national conservative parties, and ultimately, to the Nazis.

At Bayer, and other IG Farben laboratories, research and development was carried out on numerous chemical war gases. The inventor of phosgene gas, Fritz Haber of BASF, successfully advocated for its use in World War I. Similarly, Bayer’s Duisberg was personally involved in the development of mustard gas and pushed successfully for its use in WWI, contrary to international law.

Moreover, the inventor of sarin and tabun gasses, Gerhard Schrader, was the head of Bayer’s pesticides department after World War II. Sarin is the gas that was used in the 1995 Tokyo subway attack that killed 12 people, and more recently, against Syrian Sunni rebels, killing an estimated 1,200. And a subsidiary of IG Farben, BASF, supplied Zyklon B (the “final solution” cyanide gas) that was used in the Nazi gas chambers.

IG Farben was a central player in the conquests of the Third Reich. As countries were conquered, IG Farben followed the troops and took over considerable parts of the occupied nations’ chemical, coal and oil industries.

The Bayer/IG Farben leadership had all joined the Nazi Party by 1937, playing leading roles in the orchestration of Nazi atrocities. In the war criminal trials in Nuremberg, the IG Farben cartel was also on trial.

“It is undisputed that criminal experiments were undertaken by SS physicians on concentration camp prisoners,” declares a passage from the Nuremberg findings. “These experiments served the express purpose of testing the products of IG Farben.”

These horrific experiments under Nazi directives were known about and approved by the highest echelons of IG Farben, as is documented by Joseph Borkin’s book, The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben.

While many were convicted as war criminals in Nuremberg, none of the IG Farben executives served sentences longer than four years and all were able to continue their corporate careers.

Fritz ter Meer, for example, convicted of plunder, spoliation, slavery and mass murder, became chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bayer in 1956 and held that position until 1964.

In one investigation by the U.S. Senate in 1945, and reported on by Borkin, the Bayer brass on trial asked for sentencing leniency based on the argument that the Auschwitz victims had “not been made to suffer particularly badly as they were to have been killed anyway by the Nazis, but also on the grounds that the experiments had a humanitarian aspect in that the lives of countless German workers were saved thereby.”

Following the Allied victory in the Second World War, Bayer was restricted in the production and marketing of its products in the U.S., France, England and other parts of Allied Europe.

Moreover, U.S. regulators were attempting to seize Bayer’s chemical plants in the U.S.

But in order to hide from its past and continue its corporate hegemony in the U.S., Bayer orchestrated a merger with Monsanto in 1954, giving rise to the Mobay Corporation.

While Bayer may have been stripped of its coveted aspirin patent and other sales and marketing opportunities as a result of its Nazi collaboration, its newly reconstituted entity—Mobay—allowed them to remain an economic powerhouse..

Bayer and Monsanto had unofficially rebounded and worked together to promote Agent Orange in Viet Nam. More recently, in a formidable one-two punch against Monarch butterflies, honeybees and bird populations, Monsanto supplied the Roundup and Bayer provided the neonicotinoids.

And then, of course, there have also been human health consequences, water quality issues, and the economic strangulation of the American farmer as these two chemical titans waged their collective wars on bugs and nature.

While Bayer tries its best to put a soft-focus on its past, referencing its aspirin breakthrough of 1898, but forgetting about its heroin-based children’s cough syrup released about the same time, it is a history that should never be forgotten.

It’s a sordid past made possible largely by the result of mergers and acquisitions, where corporate power became so great that it overwhelmed laws and simple human decency. At the very least, it cannot not be allowed to play the fair-haired child in its latest attempts to merge with the ethically challenged Monsanto.

In the spring of 1915 the company BAYER supplied about 700 tonnes of chemicals to the front. On April 22 about 170 tonnes of chlorine gas were used for the first time on a battlefield in Ypres, Belgium.

A six km wide and 600-900 m deep gas cloud formed, drifting towards the French troops. This attack alone led to about 1,000 dead and 4,000 severely injured men. Poison gas attacks against British soldiers followed on 1st, 6th, 10th and 24th May.

As early as in the fall of 1914, in response to a suggestion from the Ministry of War, a commission had been established to deal with the use of poisonous waste from the chemical industry. The commission was chaired by Fritz Haber (director of the Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut), Carl Duisberg of BAYER and the chemist Walter Nernst.

The commission recommended the use of chlorine gas, which was a deliberate violation of the Hague Convention Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, under which chemical warfare had been banned since 1907.

Carl Duisberg was personally present during early tests of poison gas and enthusiastically praised the new weapon: “The enemy won’t even know when an area has been sprayed with it and will remain quietly in place until the consequences occur.” Under Carl Duisberg’s leadership BAYER continued to develop increasingly lethal chemical weapons, first phosgene and later mustard gas.

Duisberg vehemently demanded that they be used: “This phosgene is the meanest weapon I know.

I strongly recommend that we not let the opportunity of this war pass without also testing gas grenades.” At BAYER´s headquarters in Leverkusen a school for chemical warfare was built.

Duisberg even commissioned the painter Otto Bollhagen to depict scenes of war production for the BAYER directors’ breakfast room. The painting shows the testing of poison gas and gas masks near Cologne.

During the war BAYER became the biggest German explosives producer, the company also manufactured gas masks. Due to a price guarantee by the government profits were elevated to undreamt of heights. Also during the Third Reich research into chemical war gases was carried out in BAYER laboratories. The inventor of SARIN and TABUN, Dr. Gerhard Schrader, became head of the BAYER pesticides department after WW II.