Bayer AG, Monsanto Co. Approval Hinges on Risky Innovation Fix

The Justice Department’s May 29 conditional approval of the Bayer AG-Monsanto Co. merger rests on a potentially risky bet: selling $9 billion in assets to ensure competition in future product innovation and development.

The merger is conditioned on BASF SE, a German chemical company, acquiring Bayer’s divested assets, including seed treatment patents and herbicides products, a requirement that the DOJ believes will maintain innovation through competition. The acquisition of these assets enables “BASF to continue Bayer’s legacy of innovation, while preserving the innovation incentives of the combined Bayer/Monsanto company,” Makan Delrahim, DOJ assistant attorney general for the antitrust division, said ...