Deere Pushes Back on Lawsuit, Announces Licensing Deal With Ag Leader

John Deere announced its intent to license Precision Planting's high-speed planting technology, SpeedTube, to Ag Leader Technology once Deere's proposed purchase of Precision Planting is completed.  The move appears to be an initial attempt to appease the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed a lawsuit in August to stop Deere's acquisition of Precision Planting. The lawsuit argues that the purchase would allow Deere to hold a monopoly on "high-speed planting technology." At issue are Precision Plantings' SpeedTube technology and John Deere's ExactEmerge technology, which are designed to move seed out of the planter and into the furrow faster, without losing accuracy. The systems allow farmers to essentially double their planting speeds, from 5 to 10 miles per hour.  The DOJ lawsuit claims that Deere's ExactEmerge technology accounts for 44% of the high-speed planting market, and Precision Planting's SpeedTube technology accounts for 42%, for a combined monopolistic market share of 86%.  Deere pushed back against this characterization of the purchase in a formal court filing on Thursday, shortly after the announcement of the Ag Leader deal. The company insists that high-speed planting technology is not a market in and of itself and argued that the purchase won't endanger competition, in part thanks to the new licensing agreement.