With Monsanto's long term prospects as an independent concern looking bleak, far better diversified German chemical giant Bayer made an unsolicited 46 Billion United States dollar bid to acquire Monsanto in an effort to diversify further. With Monsanto's value dropping as its enforceable patent portfolio shrinks Bayer would be acquiring a steady revenue stream and the means by which to continue Monsanto's business, but in a way that might leverage Bayer's own sizeable patent portfolio for synergy in those backwater markets that still recognize the fiat patent system. As Bayer already pirated the genes from a bacteria that breaks down its new herbicide "Liberty"¹ that would present a far more marketable continuation of Monsanto's "Roundup Ready"(TM)(R) brand than the present, momentarily independent Monsanto's move to add Dicamba resistance.

Glufosinate has no pre-emergent action. Unlike Dicamba it is purely a post-emergent herbicide which creates the interesting question of just how many herbicide resistant traits is Bayer willing to throw into a single crop at a time, and how will they pace the market releases to keep their patent extortion funds rolling in? Sorry for your loss.

1. Less ambiguously known as Glufosinate  ↩