Monsanto has accepted a takeover bid from the German chemical giant Bayer, opening the way for the creation of the world’s biggest seed and pesticide company. In a joint press release, Bayer and Monsanto announced on Wednesday that they agreed on a 66 billion dollar deal under which Bayer will be paying USD 128 per share in an all-cash transaction. “We are pleased to announce the combination of our two great organizations,” rejoiced Bayer’s chief executive Werner Baumann. The signing of the merger agreement puts an end to a takeover battle that stretched over four months. The 66 billion dollar offer represents a 44 percent premium over Monsanto’s share price on May 9, the day before Bayer’s first written proposal to the US seed giant and producer of the world’s most widely used weedkiller Roundup. The deal also includes a two billion dollar antitrust break fee which Bayer will have to pay if the deal is not concluded or fails to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals. The proposed merger would create a new company with about 26 billion US dollars (23 billion euros) in sales that according to BBC News would control more than a quarter of the global supply of seeds and pesticides. While Bayer and Monsanto stress their “deep commitment to innovation and sustainable agriculture practices” and the new company’s contribution to feeding “an additional 3 billion people in the world by 2050 in an environmentally sustainable way”, environmental and anti-GMO activists fear exactly the opposite will be the case. Adrian Bebb, campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said “Bayer's buyout of Monsanto is a marriage made in hell, which threatens to further lock in industrialised agriculture at the expense of nature, farmers and the wider public. He added that “this mega corporation will be doing its best to force damaging pesticides and GM seeds into our countryside” although public support for local and greener food continues to boom. The merger agreement was described as a “disaster for the world's food system” by Aisha Dodwell, a food campaigner at Global Justice Now: “The creation of this mega-argibusiness would mean that a single terrifying corporate behemoth is now the world’s biggest company for both seeds and fertilisers, putting them firmly in control of the world’s farming inputs.” Bayer and Monsanto hope that the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval on both sides of the Atlantic, will be closed by the end of 2017. The Monsanto Bayer merger is not the only deal threatening to increase the concentration in the seed and pesticide market. Dow and DuPont announced a 130bn dollar merger last year, while ChemChina’s 44bn dollar acquisition of Syngenta recently received approval from an important U.S. regulator, removing a key hurdle to the takeover. “We already know that these agri-businesses use aggressive techniques to further their market share and increase profit margins and do not act in the best interests of small-scale farmers, public health or the environment," Aisha Dodwell warns in a statement. (ab)