In assessing how Germany’s Bayer got its enormous $63bn (£49bn) takeover of American food giant Monsanto so wrong, it is worth remembering one simple fact that is consistently ignored by empire-building chief executives: giant mergers rarely create value.
On the contrary, reams of research have proven they are almost always highly destructive. It should be of no surprise therefore that the deal is fast turning into one big, costly mess, and that was before a jury in Oakland, California, awarded $2bn in damages to Alva and Alberta Pilliod, an elderly couple whose ill health has been blamed on exposure to Monsanto’s highly controversial Roundup weedkiller.
With at least 13,400 plaintiffs waiting...
Bayer's acquisition of Monsanto could easily turn out to be the worst deal ever
In assessing how Germany’s Bayer got its enormous $63bn (£49bn) takeover of American food giant Monsanto so wrong, it is worth remembering one simple fact that is consistently ignored by empire-building chief executives: giant mergers rarely create value.
On the contrary, reams of research have proven they are almost always highly destructive. It should be of no surprise therefore that the deal is fast turning into one big, costly mess, and that was before a jury in Oakland, California, awarded $2bn in damages to Alva and Alberta Pilliod, an elderly couple whose ill health has been blamed on exposure to Monsanto’s highly controversial Roundup weedkiller.
With at least 13,400 plaintiffs waiting...
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