Today (May 1), Monsanto canceled the agreement with Deere & Company to acquire the Precision Planting business.
“We are deeply disappointed in this outcome as we remain confident the acquisition would have benefited customers,” says John May, Deere president of the Agricultural Solutions division and chief information officer.
First announced in November 2015, the transaction closing continued to be delayed due to concerns expressed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In 2016, the Department of Justice brought legal action in an attempt to block the transaction. Deere and Monsanto were prepared to present their case for approval of the acquisition later this year.
According to Monsanto, Climate Corporation made the strategic decision nearly 18 months ago to focus its business exclusively on its digital agriculture platform, and that strategy has not changed. The company reports that it intends to sell the Precision Planting equipment business and has spoken with several third parties that have expressed interest in purchasing it.
Two agreements related to Deere’s purchase of Precision Planting will also be terminated, including the digital collaboration agreement between Deere and The Climate Corporation. Monsanto reports the termination of this agreement will have no impact on existing Climate FieldView customers who currently use John Deere’s Wireless Data Server technology to stream data into their account. The other termination is an agreement that would have allowed Ag Leader to expand access to and distribution of certain Precision Planting products and technologies.
Having sold more than 10,000 Field View Drive devices that stream real-time data from planters, sprayers and combines, Monsanto reports Climate FieldView will retain connectivity with Precision Planting’s 20/20 SeedSense monitor.
May says Deere remains focused on enabling customers to efficiently leverage their data to drive better decisions on their farms through the John Deere Operations Center, which includes nearly 75 connected software tools with the total continuing to increase.
