Bayer vague on lawsuit strategy

It’s been two weeks since the merger between Bayer AG and Monsanto officially began its integration, two months since the deal closed and nearly two years since the planned deal was announced.  Despite that, newly appointed Bayer officials are vague on how they plan to handle the mountain of lawsuits inherited from Monsanto over pesticides such as glyphosate and dicamba.  These lawsuits have plagued Monsanto, most recently in an August 10 court decision that ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages. But at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, Wednesday, Brett Begemann, Bayer’s new chief operating officer and former Monsanto executive, was non-committal on the newly integrated company’s approach. “First of all, remember we’ve been together eight days,” said Begemann, referring to the mandate by the U.S. Department of Justice that disallowed the two companies from making any plans until August 16. “We continue to learn, just like any company, from feedback from our customers. We’ll continue to listen to that feedback, engage in that conversation, look at additional research, and move on from there.”