mmm mmm BUSINESS
BAYER HATCHES, DISPATCHES CropScience is launched, progress made on disposition of other units
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TARGET Bayer CropScience will keep its line of versatile farm and garden insecticides such as imidacloprid, which controls mealybug infestations.
AYER HAS WASTED NO TIME
in launching its newest business: Bayer CropScience. The merger of Bayer's crop protection business group with Aventis CropScience got the green light from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on May 31, and on June 4, the newly merged company began operations. FTC's approval was conditional on divestment or out-licensing of a number of products marketed in the U.S., stipulations that Bayer has accepted. Some of the conditions mirrored those required by the European Union, which approved the deal in April. For example,
AIR
both say Bayer must divest its global business in fipronil, an insecticide used for agricultural applications, but may market the product for nonagricultural uses except in Europe. And Bayer must divest its insecticide acetamiprid in Europe and North America. FTC also required divestiture of Bayer's wheat herbicide Everest and its cotton defoliant Folex. Generally, however, Bayer will keep its major products, such as its versatile imidacloprid insecticides, used in both agricultural and horticultural applications. In total, the conditions will cut Bayer CropScience's sales by be-
POLLUTION
HOUSTON CULPRIT: PETROCHEMICALS
"We see an Air-sampling study fingers reactive unmistakable olefins as source of excessive ozone signal that hydrocarbons ESULTS FROM A C O M P R E than 4 0 public and private inhensive air pollution study stitutions who took part in the from the confirm what experts have Texas 2 0 0 0 Air Quality Study petrochemical long suspected: Emissions from (C&EN, Nov. 6,2000, page 32). petrochemical complexes in Using specially equipped planes, industry are Houston are responsible for the the scientists collected air samcausing Houston extraordinarily high levels of ples in Houston, Nashville, New ozone that occur there. York City, Philadelphia, and to look really Phoenix. They measured con"I think it's about as clear-cut differentfrom a case as you would ever find," centrations of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and volatile organic comsays Lawrence I. Kleinman, an other urban pounds (VOCs), two ozone preatmospheric chemist at Brookareas" cursors, as well as ozone itself haven National Laboratory.
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Lawrence I. Kleinman, Brookhaven National Laboratory 10
C & E N / J U N E 10, 2002
Kleinman and other Brookhaven scientists are among hundreds of researchers from more
and other species. From those data, they calculated the rate of ozone production [Geophys. Res.
tween $585 million and $630 million. However, saysjochen Wulff, chairman of the new unit, although the company has had to reduce its sales forecast in order to meet antitrust requirements, "we are holding on to our strategic goal of achieving a 20% return on sales by 2006." Meanwhile, Bayer will sell its remaining stake of 30% in Belgian films company Agfa-Gevaert to investment bank Goldman Sachs for nearly $190 million. Bayer had sold its former subsidiary on the stock market in an initial public offering in 1999, retaining the minority stake as a financial investment. Also on the divestment front, Firmenich—a family-owned Swiss fragrances and flavors supplier—has been added to the list of bidders for Bayer's subsidiary Haarmann & Reimer. Virtually every large company in the business has been named as a potential buyer of the subsidiary, which Bayer wants to sell for at least $1.4 billion.-PATRICIA SHORT
Lett., 29,10.1029/2001GL014569 (2002)]. Most of Houston resembles the other cities, Kleinman and coworkers report, with similar levels of N O x , V O C s , and ozone production rates. But in the Houston Ship Channel region, where scores of industrial facilities including oil refineries and chemical plants are located, they found high concentrations of VOCs not seen in the other cities or in other parts of Houston. Specifically, the researchers found ethylene, propene, and butenes. As a result, the ozone production rate can be as much as five times higher near the ship channel. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission plans to use these and other forthcoming results from the study to formulate strategies to imp r o v e air q u a l i t y —PAMELA ZURER HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
