Ashburn, GA, (very close to Heaven!) | and it never went through. At that time, Monsanto owned Stoneville, but sold it back to the original owners to help clear regulatory hurdles. The DPL acquisition never went through then, as the regulatory hurdles, I'd speculate, became costly and complicated to overcome. At that time, DPL had not been too many years away from having acquired the cotton lines from the old Coker, Ellis Brothers, and Paymaster companies. Also, Monsanto them already owned, I remember correctly, 15% of the company.
Interesting is that in spite of divesting Stoneville back then, the sale never completed. DPL actually pursued suing Monsanto over abandoning the purchase, as I guess it cost the stockholders money. The tones in the news releases of the day were different than I am seeing this time. Back then, it was almost like "we are planning to put in motion efforts to purchase DPL" and today they are "going to purchase DPL and the sale will complete once regulatory and other legal hurdles are cleared" (all those are my words, BTW).
Will it clear FTC and other government agency approval? It does indeed put virtually all the cotton seed industry under a single umbrella, as Monsanto bought Stoneville back about two years ago.
What will the farmer gain or lose? While being a little naive on many occasions, consolidation does streamline operating expenses, I know. Both companies do produce high quality products, and are very supportive of the industry, and they have a good number of very good people in the field servicing their customers. I am cautiously optimistic, that if it completes, it will not cost the farmer.
|
Who has 1.5 billion in cash ??
