Bayer and Monsanto said “I do” in the largest merger of the year but we’ll have to wait and see if anyone objects.
The Hustle
Thurs, Sept 15
Kind of a big deal
Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company known for drugs like Aspirin and Claritin, just struck a $66B all-cash deal to take over Monsanto, the agricultural behemoth with a public-approval rating so low it makes post-Watergate Nixon look like an American war hero.
Assuming the deal gets approved by regulators (analysts give it a 50% chance), the newly formed company will become the largest agribusiness on the planet.
A growing trend… get it?
The agriculture industry is no stranger to mergers as an alarming number of companies have joined forces recently. The main reason for this? A slumping global agricultural economy that’s caused commodity prices to fall and resulted in farmers having less money to spend on supplies.
To counteract this, the big boys have gone on a feeding frenzy, hoping to cut costs while keeping profits high (a shareholder’s dream).
Some massive deals in the last 14 months alone:
Last July: Dow Chemical and DuPont (still awaiting regulatory approval)
Last month: China National Chemical Corporation and Syngenta (the Swiss seed company Monsanto tried to buy last year)
Last week: Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium
And if all of these mergers go through, the 3 biggest companies to emerge (Bayer-Monsanto, Dow-Dupont, and ChemChina-Syngenta) will control 59% of the world’s seeds and 64% of all pesticides.
Compare that to 1994, when the world’s 4 biggest seed companies controlled just 21% of the market and it becomes abundantly clear why regulators might say nahhh.
Recommendation for Bayer: kill the Monsanto name
According to Bayer’s CEO, they have yet to make a decision on whether or not to keep the Monsanto name. The right move? Bury that sucker.
Whether you support the company or absolutely despise its existence, there’s no denying that the name “Monsanto” carries an insane amount of negative baggage.
At this point, it’s pretty much synonymous with every easily hateable thing in the book, including GMOs, seed patents, lawsuits against helpless farmers, and corporate influence over government food policy.
Bayer needs to kill off the name Monsanto like Stranger Things killed off Barb… abruptly and unapologetically. Because how are people going to march against a brand that technically no longer exists?
Everyone forgot about Barb
Welcome to the 21st century, Nielsen!
Nielsen is finally phasing out its antiquated paper “TV diary” system that’s somehow still used in 140 of 210 local markets.
The plan is to outfit every market with set-top boxes and other electronic measurement tools (what Nielsen uses to measure national ratings) by 2018.
About damn time
Not sure if you knew about how they collect data for the Nielsen TV ratings but this paper system is the most outdated thing on the planet. Not even exaggerating. It’s actually offensive that it still exists.
Here’s how it works (or worked): Nielsen sends 20-page “diaries” in the mail to random people across the country asking them to log their viewing habits. Cool. Problem is, there’s no room to log any streaming content … which is what, um, people watch.
As Dennis Cheatham, a participant in the survey who has no cable subscription put it, “I just kind of shoved it in there and wrote Netflix wherever I could. Is Nielsen not paying attention to technology? Don’t they notice that something has changed?”
They do, Dennis…
It just took them about a decade longer than it should have — an epic failure that likely cost some fantastic TV shows their livelihood (since networks use that viewership data to decide their fate).
#NielsenKilledArrestedDevelopment
Get it trending
Graphic designers better be on watch
Canva, an Australian-based graphic design platform, just raised a new $15m round of funding from Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures at a $345m valuation. That’s up roughly twice the value from when they raised from the same investors less than a year ago.
And oh yeah, they did it without spending a dime of that first $15m… an impressive feat and a big reason why Blackbird and Felicis ended up coming back for more.
Why they’re killing it
In an age where so much content is visual and meant to be shared (Instagram posts, blogs, content marketing), Canva is a gift from the gods.
Not only is it incredibly simple to create graphic-designery images, but it also functions seamlessly on desktop and mobile and most of its services are free (we’ve used it for months at no cost).
Compare that to the clunky pieces of software that’s become the go-to design tool over the last 20 years (looking at you, Photoshop). It’s night and day. And it’s just what the doctor ordered.
Okay, so they have $30m in the bank. Now what?
Canva didn’t need to take on additional capital, says co-founder and CEO, Melanie Perkins. But it made sense to forge an even stronger bond with Blackbird and Felicis who she believes “really understand our vision.”
And what exactly is this vision?
“We’ve got 10 million users, which might sound like a lot, but there’s three billion people on the internet and we really believe Canva can become the platform for the modern workforce and help people communicate their ideas, across every single industry,” she said.
Thus, the funds will be used to “quadruple down” on growth efforts, with their first target being students. Why? Because schools are increasingly asking them to create visual content to prepare for a job market that requires such skills in almost every profession.
Get ‘em while they’re young and have customers for life. Smart.
Beer money
Tonight’s a big night for Twitter
Twitter is streaming its first NFL game tonight — a Thursday Night Football matchup between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills.
To gear up for the big show, the company just launched a new version of its app for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Xbox One.
Dude, no one tweets on their Xbox…
Don’t worry, that’s not what it’s for. In fact, you can’t even log into your Twitter account on the new apps which means no dealing with trolls on the biggest screen in your house tonight. Phew.
The focus here is entirely on watching live-streaming NFL video (with MLB, NBA, and Bloomberg News content coming soon) and browsing curated clips from places like Periscope and Vine.
The start of something new?
Jack Dorsey’s betting big on live events and tonight could be the start of a whole new era for Twitter. Plus, the message they’re sending is clear: We’re much more than a social network. We’re a media company.
By going video-only on these new made-for-TV apps, they’re hoping to lure in new users that have no interest in tweeting so maybe, just maybe, hey’ll eventually bring them onboard for the full 140-character experience.
#touchdown #sports
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