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Businesses The Almighty Buck

No More 'Miracles From Molecules': Monsanto's Name Is Being Retired (reuters.com) 236

Flexagon writes: Germany's Bayer announced today that in its link-up with Monsanto, it's retiring the "Monsanto" name, and with it the name of the company that originally sponsored Disneyland's "Adventure Thru Inner Space" attraction. The $63 billion takeover will wrap up on Thursday. "Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio," it said.

The decision to retire the name is a smart business move. "These days Monsanto is shorthand for, as NPR's Dan Charles has put it, 'lots of things that some people love to hate': Genetically modified crops, which Monsanto invented," reports NPR. "Seed patents, which Monsanto has fought to defend. Herbicides such as Monsanto's Roundup, which protesters have sharply criticized for its possible health risks. Big agriculture in general, of which Monsanto was the reviled figurehead."
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No More 'Miracles From Molecules': Monsanto's Name Is Being Retired

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  • Toxic brand (Score:5, Informative)

    by jawtheshark ( 198669 ) * <slashdot@jawthe[ ]rk.com ['sha' in gap]> on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:07AM (#56729688) Homepage Journal
    It's a toxic brand: I'm surprised it took that long. I mean, Bayer isn't called "IG Farben" for good reason. Bayer associates with "aspirin", which is good, right!?!
    • Re:Toxic brand (Score:5, Interesting)

      by stephanruby ( 542433 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:32AM (#56729726)

      Yes, but now Bayer will be the name that attracts all the hate for Monsanto's portfolio of products.

      Not that I disagree with that move, it's actually more honest, but still...

      • Re:Toxic brand (Score:5, Interesting)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @06:21AM (#56729868) Homepage Journal

        Name changes used to work, but these days they tend to backfire. Journalists will still call them Monsanto (now rebranded Bayer due to bad publicity).

        All changing your name like that does is publicly admit that your reputation is impossible to salvage and you are trying to be sneaky. It's not like in the old days where such things could get by unnoticed.

        • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @08:03AM (#56730212) Journal

          > All changing your name like that does is publicly admit that your reputation is impossible to salvage and you are trying to be sneaky.

          What the heck are you talking about? Why in the world would the larger company, Bayer, change ITS name to the name of the smaller company it is acquiring? Of course Bayer is keeping their name.

          What could be sneaky be if $bigcompany bought $smallcompany and then changed its name to $smallcompany. Keeping their name is what companies normally do when they make acquisitions.

          • Why in the world would the larger company, Bayer, change ITS name to the name of the smaller company it is acquiring?

            See: AT&T

            But seriously, huge companies do not usually use the parent company's name. How many products in the grocery aisle have you seen marked as Mondelez International? You see plenty of Kraft, Nabisco, Cadbury, etc.

            • You also see Bayer in the supermarket, it's a brand.
              As you said, Mondelez International isn't a big grocery brand (it's a new company) Nabisco and Kraft are major consumer brands. Of course if you're choosing between a major brand name and new name nobody has heard of, you keep using the successful brand.

              • OK, sure - one of many, many examples. Pepsi owns Quaker oats, Dole, Frito Lay. None of those are named Pepsi despite it being a much bigger brand. In fact, none of them even list Pepsi on the packaging.

                Incidentally, Gatorade is owned by Quaker Oats Comany - not directly by Pepsi.

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Name changes used to work, but these days they tend to backfire. Journalists will still call them Monsanto (now rebranded Bayer due to bad publicity).

          All changing your name like that does is publicly admit that your reputation is impossible to salvage and you are trying to be sneaky. It's not like in the old days where such things could get by unnoticed.

          Actually, journalists have to use the current name, so it's actually more like "Bayer (formerly Monsanto) has just announced new lawsuits against farmers".

          T

          • Sure it pollutes the name of Bayer. Which is still less polluted than Monsanto. 50 years from now, who can say - but by then they will have a new brand with a fresh reservoir of good will to burn.

            What, you expected something reasonable? From marketing?
    • by PolygamousRanchKid ( 1290638 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @06:16AM (#56729850)

      I mean, Bayer isn't called "IG Farben" for good reason. Bayer associates with "aspirin", which is good, right!?!

      "Give a man aspirin . . . and he'll be free of headaches for a day."

      "Give a man Zyklon B, and he'll be free of headaches for the rest of his life."

    • Re:Toxic brand (Score:5, Informative)

      by Sique ( 173459 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @07:15AM (#56730014) Homepage
      The reason being that the IG Farben was a trust, of which Bayer only was a part of. In fact, IG Farben consisted of eight different companies, Bayer, BASF, AGFA, Casella, Brüning, Griesheim-Elektron, Kalle, and ter Meer. After World War II, the IG Farben was disolved back into the eight former companies (Griesheim-Elektron becoming a part of Hoechst). So while Bayer was an important part of IG Farben, it wasn't IG Farben itself, and the former IG Farben is not Bayer.
    • by xonen ( 774419 )

      It's a toxic brand

      People aren't stupid, and will realize Roundup is now produced by Bayer. Bayer will just be the new 'synonym' for Monsanto.

      Having said that all, i don't believe genetic modification or roundup is bad per-se. It's how it's been used that's possibly bad - with corn producing its own poisons, and roundup being available at consumer level and it's commercial use poorly regulated. People forget that Monsanto's products are also essential for feeding 8 billion people. However, it's also good that environmental-aw

      • What's the point of feeding 8 billion people if you're poisoning them at the same time?

        • If feeding them keeps them alive for longer, despite being poisoned, then that's exactly the point.

          What amount of poisoning are you talking about by the way? What increase in life expectancy can we expect by banning Bayer products?

      • Re: Toxic brand (Score:4, Insightful)

        by c6gunner ( 950153 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @09:35AM (#56730740) Homepage

        People aren't stupid

        If that were true they wouldn't have demonized Monsanto in the first place ...

      • The patent for Roundup expired 18 years ago and since then all major chemical companies have produced their own version. Bayer e.g had this since many years: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bayer... [amazon.co.uk]
        • My anecdote: Tried the knockoff WallyMart brand, it worked poorly if at all. Not sure why as the percentage of glyphosate was the same according to the bottles. The real deal killed everything within days. I was trying to avoid giving big bad Monsanto any of my money, but I needed to kill the weeds so they got me in the end.

          • Since it's WallMart they probably multiplied the percentage by 100 to get a better value :)
          • by Khyber ( 864651 )

            The reason the wal-mart knockoff didn't work despite having the same concentration of glyphosate is that it likely didn't have the same surfactants which make the glyphosate effective in the first place.

    • It's a toxic brand: I'm surprised it took that long. I mean, Bayer isn't called "IG Farben" for good reason. Bayer associates with "aspirin", which is good, right!?!

      I guess it's better than to be associated with Heroin, which would not be good.

      N.B. Trademarks can have interesting stories...

    • The Monsanto name was toxified by its intellectual property shenanigans. How does Bayer's record compare?

    • True, and yet Bayer is the company that rose to success at least in part through its children's heroin cough syrup. [businessinsider.com] Apparently that didn't hurt the brand?
    • It's a toxic brand

      To leftist lunatics. To us normal people, it's a company that makes agricultural products.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:07AM (#56729690)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Sooooo (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MrKaos ( 858439 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:19AM (#56729702) Journal

    Monsanto name is gone, however their genetically modified crops that only grow with their products remains.

    i.e. nothing has changed.

    • I doubt they will go for the same lawsuits. Let's see.
      Also I don't get why their crops should only grow with their products? Roundup is just Glyhosate, which you can buy from many manufacturers since the patent ran out.
    • Re:Sooooo (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @06:56AM (#56729960)

      Monsanto name is gone, however their genetically modified crops that only grow with their products remains.

      Their patents on both glyphosate (Roundup) and RR crops expired long ago.

      • by MrKaos ( 858439 )

        Monsanto name is gone, however their genetically modified crops that only grow with their products remains.

        Their patents on both glyphosate (Roundup) and RR crops expired long ago.

        So does that mean no one uses it any more or has it been re-branded like Posilac when they sold it to Eli Lilly? Like anything they did that got bad press. I wonder what other goodies are in their $63 Billion portfolio? Such lovely chaps to invent a seed like that and then sue the farmers whose fields it infects. Monsanto, loved by all, how we will miss them.

        They deserve a meme, I suggest:The Brand is gone butt the assholes remain.

        • Re:Sooooo (Score:5, Informative)

          by F.Ultra ( 1673484 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @10:03AM (#56730928)

          Every major chemical company produces glyhosate products, here is one from Bayer: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bayer... [amazon.co.uk]

          And no, Monsanto never sued farmers whose fields where infected. All lawsuits have been with people who "intentionally replanted patented seeds": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • by Miser ( 36591 )

      By any other name it just sounds like badge engineering.

      See? We're no longer Monsanto.... (goes on to do the same evil stuff Monsanto did, just under another name ...)

  • by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:28AM (#56729720)
    Bayer: "Greed From Genetics".

    Bayer is now the biotechnology migraine headache of the 21st century.

  • "The decision to retire the name is a smart business move."

    The decision is a smart business move only because you have enough idiots out there who fall for the sleight-of-name trick.

    A company being forced to change it's name tends to say a lot about all of the immoral, unethical shit that piled up high and deep to justify such a change. In the end, little will change other than the name. All the shit that people were pissed off at Monsanto will continue for one reason; because it's profitable.

    And the ignorant masses will fall for it, as they celebrate their "win

    • For all the (justifiable) hate on the company, I still feel a little sad for Edgar M Queeny’s legacy to disappear.

  • Yesterday, Monsanto was the source of hatred. Tomorrow, it will be Bayer. It's already getting there, in fact.
  • In related news, Oracle is changing its name to "Cuddly Bunny".

  • Kinda like how Blackwater changed to Xe Services and currently is named Academi. Enough name changes and you can hit the reset button on a poor reputation.
  • So, I will start boycotting pharmaceuticals from Bayer then ...

    Besides those brand containing "Bayer" in the name, they also own Adverio, AgraQuest, Agreva, AgrEvo, AlcaFleu, Athenix, Berlifarma, Berlimed, Berlipharm, Berlis, BGI, Biagro, Biogenetic Technologies, BlueRock Therapeutics, Casebia Therapeutics, Centrofarma, Chemdyes Pakistan, Chemion, Collaterial Therapeutics, Conceptus SAS, Cooksonia Opco, Cooper Land Company of New Jersey, Coppertone, CorporaciÃn Bonima, Covestro, CropScience NewCo, Curr

  • ...should all our lunar gopher complaints be addressed to now?

  • Granted, Agent Orange was a long time ago, and Monsanto wasn't the only company producing the herbicide, but it was still a very, very nasty product that had severe consequences for the people of Vietnam and many US soldiers who fought there.

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