Monsanto

Monsanto sold crop seed and the chemicals farmers spray on those crops. Roundup, its glyphosate herbicide, was the famous brand. The seed business mattered just as much: varieties and genetic traits, including traits that let a crop survive a particular weedkiller. Farmers often buy the seed and the chemical as a pair.

Bayer agreed to acquire Monsanto. The European Commission gave a conditional clearance in June 2018. Conditional means the deal could proceed only if overlapping businesses were sold. The package that went to BASF covered seeds, traits, the glufosinate herbicide business, and digital agriculture assets, the data and software tools sold alongside seed.

The library records the outcome as a remedy, those divestitures, rather than a block. This profile is Monsanto as the acquired seed and herbicide company. It does not relitigate later litigation about the herbicide's safety. The competition question in this file is who would still sell rival seed, traits, and weedkiller after the combination.

Seed, traits, and herbicide overlap was the reason a clearance had conditions attached.

Glufosinate was carved out as its own herbicide business and sold to BASF with the seed and trait assets.

Digital agriculture assets were part of the same remedy, so the data tools did not all stay with the merged company.

A farmer choosing seed for a season is also choosing a spray program and, increasingly, a software layer that recommends both.

BASF, as the buyer of the divested assets, was the rival the Commission relied on to keep a second source in the market.