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Sep. 19, 2016 St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: A day after Monsanto announced its $66 billion sale to Bayer AG, top executives from the German firm traveled to St. Louis to meet with employees and community leaders to address concerns about future plans here. The mayors of Creve Coeur and Chesterfield wanted more information on the commitment the combined company would have to the region, particularly in their municipalities, which together have more than 4,000 Monsanto employees. Monsanto and Bayer executives did not make any assurances about specific plans for the two municipalities, said Creve Coeur Mayor Barry Glantz. But both Glantz and Chesterfield Mayor Bob Nation described the lunch meeting as positive. "They stated a few times over about their significant presence in Chesterfield and Creve Coeur and how they're doing this to grow the business instead of cutting back," Nation said. "The synergies will be very, very good for St. Louis if they follow through with what they say," Glantz said. Earlier in the day, executives from both companies, including the CEOs, addressed employees at a town hall meeting at the Creve Coeur campus. Liam Condon, head of Bayer's crop science division, said later he could relate to employees Thursday morning as he spoke. "I could feel a little bit with everybody in the room for the simple reason: Almost exactly 10 years ago, I was working for a company called Schering and I was the country head for China, and Bayer acquired Schering. So, I was like the Monsanto folks today. I was on the other side wondering: 'What is happening, how is this all going to play out?'" Condon said the process with Schering proved to be transparent and fair. He expects the same as Bayer takes the next 12 to 15 months to complete the acquisition of Monsanto. It also faces shareholder and regulatory approval. In a separate meeting with reporters, Condon, joined by Monsanto's Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley, did not provide details about future numbers of employees or job changes. Bayer previously said it expects to achieve $1.5 billion in synergies after the two companies merge; it's a term that usually means job cuts in areas where there's duplication. And that's what will happen, Condon explained, using IT as an example. "Two fully fledged companies both have an IT system. If you want to have one integrated company you've only got one IT system and one cost," Condon said. The two will look for similar areas of overlap in the coming months. "There's absolutely no point, whatsoever, in any of us spending money on things twice," he said. He did make it clear that what makes Monsanto special to Bayer is its ability to create innovative products. "What built this company was the innovation in biotech and seeds," Fraley said. "The acquisition by Bayer will fuel another round of innovation." So when asked to address the perception that research jobs were safe but administrative-type functions were more susceptible to cuts, Condon said: "I would say on the research side it's probably a good assumption, on the admin side it is too early to call," Condon said of the St. Louis area. Tweet |
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