Dow Chemical and DuPont Plan Huge Merger Followed By a Split (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Two of the largest and oldest chemical companies, Dow and DuPont, have planned a merger. Dow's 53,000 employees will join forces with DuPont's 63,000 employees, which will challenge Germany's BASF for the biggest chemical company in the world. Not for long, though — once the merger is complete, they will split up into three. One will focus on agriculture, one on materials science, and one on specialty products. According to the press release, it will indeed be a merger of equals, with both companies comprising 50% of the new DowDuPont behemoth. "Despite the eventual breakup, the deal would undergo rigorous antitrust scrutiny for all three companies, particularly the agricultural chemicals company. Still, the companies did not expect that the deal would require much in the way of other divestitures to satisfy regulators' concerns."

Comments

And the obligatory layoffs...

[Anonymous Coward]

10% of the total staff will face the axe as well..

Of course execs and shareholders will make out like bandits. Or would that be "robber barons"?

Clearly anti-competive but no regulator concern?

[erice]

Once the two are combined, they plan to split into three separate companies, consisting of agricultural chemicals, specialty products and materials, like plastics.
Despite the eventual breakup, the deal would undergo rigorous antitrust scrutiny for all three companies, particularly the agricultural chemicals company. Still, the companies did not expect that the deal would require much in the way of other divestitures to satisfy regulators’ concerns.

So, they plan to combine two competing companies into one and then divide into three non-competing companies and they expect this to satisfy regulators? Are the regulators that corrupt?

At least in America

[rsilvergun]

we've been either stacking our regulatory bodies with captured folks or just plain not funding regulation for decades. We don't like small, local corruption (like being shaken down for money by cops or having your mail stolen) but we ignore big stuff like this. When I point it out to people they just don't believe it's real. I get the same when I point out that the Safety Net was dismantled in the 90s... :(

Re:Clearly anti-competive but no regulator concern

[MightyMartian]

So, they plan to combine two competing companies into one and then divide into three non-competing companies and they expect this to satisfy regulators? Are the regulators that corrupt?

That's a rhetorical question, right?