Bayer’s Biggest Mistake –Buying Monsanto?

December 20, 2018, 3:00PM. By Jane Mundy

Shares in Bayer plummeted this year and many jobs axed, mainly due to concerns over Monsanto’s Roundup Cancer Lawsuits

San Francisco, CAAugust 10, 2018 was a bad day for Bayer and Monsanto executives. That was the day when San Francisco jurors determined that Monsanto’s (and now Bayer’s) RoundUp and Ranger Pro caused cancer in a former school groundskeeper who claimed his terminal cancer had been caused by the glyphosate-based weed-killers.

Bayer and Monsanto Deal

Bayer’s shares have dropped more than a third this year. If financial experts are correct in reasoning that it’s mainly because of the lawsuits involving Roundup, the German company’s future may look bleak. On that day in August, $289 million in damages was awarded to Dewayne Johnson. Although the amount was later reduced to $29 million, more than four thousand individuals with similar Monsanto lawsuits are waiting their day in court. Bayer, in June 2018, won over Monsanto with a takeover offer of about $66 billion.

The $128 a share deal, up from Bayer's previous offer of $127.50 a share, is the biggest of the year so far and the largest cash bid on record, reported Scientific American. If all went according to plan, Bayer’s deal would create a company with more than a quarter of the combined world market for seeds and pesticides in the fast-consolidating farm supplies industry – a deal opposed by many, from environmentalists to healthcare professionals to farmers. (Farmers are mainly worried about Bayer’s power and their advantage in digital farming data, which would tell them how and when to till, sow, spray, fertilize and pick crops based on algorithms.)

Also opposed to the deal was Marjin Dekkers, a senior executive who ran Bayer in 2010. According to the Wall Street Journal, , Dekkers viewed the plan to acquire Monsanto as “fraught with risks, from the all-cash financing and the challenge of integrating two companies with very different cultures, to the reputational challenges springing from Monsanto’s controversial image.”

Bayer Facing more Monsanto Roundup Litigation

Having put aside nearly $250 million for all litigation, Bayer was ill-prepared for Monsanto Glyphosate Lawsuits-- Dewayne Johnson’s award alone exceeded that amount. The giant chemical company is now looking at how to deal with thousands of people with claims similar to Johnson’s Roundup-cancer lawsuit, including plaintiff Richard Giglio.

EMANUEL RICHARD GIGLIO v. MONSANTO

Filed in the California Southern District Court in October 2015, Giglio alleges that exposure to Roundup caused him to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (Case No.: 15cv2279), but he might succumb to cancer before his trial. In April of 2018 Giglio’s oncologist gave him less than six months to live. Giglio, age 66, owned a landscaping company that installed synthetic turf. He used a gallon of Roundup every two months for about five years to remove grass from his customers’ property, but stopped using the toxic herbicide in 2015 when he was diagnosed with the same cancer as Dewayne Johnson.

Although glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was classified as a probable cause of human cancer in 2015 by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several regulatory agencies in Europe have found it to be a safe product.