Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 6858 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM INDUSTRY NEWS TAILORED TO SEED PROFESSIONALS, INDUSTRY NEWS DELIVERS THE PEOPLE, RESEARCH, BUSINESS AND PRODUCT NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW. SUBMISSIONS ARE WELCOME. EMAIL US AT NEWS@ISSUESINK.COM. BUSINESS NEWS The price is right at $66 billion for Monsanto to sign a definitive merger agreement with Bayer. Under the deal, announced Sept. 14, Bayer will acquire Monsanto at $128 per share in an all-cash agreement. While the deal has been approved by Monsanto’s board of directors, Bayer’s board of management and Bayer’s supervisory board, it still is subject to approval of Monsanto’s shareholders. There’s also quite a bit of skepticism of whether or not the agreement will make it through antitrust regulations — it is the biggest buyout of the year, so far. If regulators do decide to squash the deal, Bayer has agreed to pay $2 billion to Monsanto. The companies say they will work diligently with regulators to ensure a success- ful closing, expected by the end of 2017. DLF takes possession of the alfalfa germplasm and varieties, seed stock and commercial agreements related to Florimond Desprez’s alfalfa business. Designated Florimond Desprez staff involved in the alfalfa breed- ing program remain employees of Florimond Desprez. The parties have signed a long-term service agreement to facilitate and carry-for- ward all on-going alfalfa breeding programs and projects to be conducted by Florimond Desprez in Cappelle (FR) for DLF’s account. Hazera has been making further inroads into the Spanish vegetable seed market through its local subsidiary located in the region of Almería. It is currently in the midst of launching a whole range of varieties that were specially cultivated for the Spanish market. According to Hazera’s commercial director for Southern Europe and Israel, Zion Barel, the Spanish vegetable market is one of the largest in the world, with an annual turnover of 250 million euros. Ninety percent of its produce is marketed overseas. The Spanish market is one of the most profitable for seed companies that invest heavily in order to retain their market shares. BGI has announced that it will be offering NRGene’s technology as part of its broad genomics analysis services in agriculture research. BGI supports genomics research worldwide by offering a variety of genetic research and application technologies for the health care, agriculture, conservation, and environmental fields. It also publishes the respected international research jour- nal, GigaScience, to further contribute to the genomics community. NRGene provides genomics assessment and assembly tools that solve the most complex genomic challenges accurately and rapidly. Abbott & Cobb Inc., a leading developer and marketer of vegetable varieties in the USA and worldwide, has completed a long-term agree- ment to license A&C’s recently patented tech- nology, SuperSeedWare (SSW) to Syngenta Seeds LLC for worldwide use in sweet corn varieties. SSW represents the first privately owned, 100 per cent natural, gene-type in sweet corn breeding. Syngenta will begin to introgress SSW technology into its proprietary sweet corn genetics. India’s top seed and seed technology compa- nies, including Bayer, Dow Agro, DuPont Pioneer, Mahyco, Metahelix, Monsanto, Namdhari, Rasi Seeds, Shriram Bioseeds and Syngenta, launched the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII), an industry body. FSII has primarily been formed with the objective of providing a forum for research- based seed industry and seed technology companies who develop and provide high-per- formance seeds and technology-based solu- tions that will benefit Indian farmers and the nation at large. It will also strive to actively contribute in its own way to the prime minis- ter’s vision of doubling the farmers’ incomes by 2022 through seed science. Land O’Lakes Inc. completed its acquisi- tion of Ceres Inc., which will become part of the company’s forage business unit, Forage Genetics International (FGI). According to the company, this transaction brings new advanced plant breeding and biotechnology to FGI’s research and development pipeline, creates the potential to bring new forage traits to market faster and places the business in a position to expand its portfolio to become a holistic forage provider to its customers. South Pacific Seeds and Dorsing Seeds Inc. announced that the business and infra- structure of Dorsing Seeds Inc. has been acquired by SPS Dorsing Seeds Inc. — a com- pany jointly owned by South Pacific Seeds Pty Limited and South Pacific Seeds Limited. The new company will focus on hybrid veg-