I guess it's a sign of the times. Two old world titans with loads of cash on their balance sheets but struggling to buy growth conventionally choosing to get together. Obviously what we've seen in commodity prices hasn't helped in the slightest. It will be interesting to see how it plays out with the merged company then splitting into three separate companies: agri, materials and specialty products. It might work out well for existing shareholders who will get a piece of each pie.
Bloomberg just had both CEOs on TV about an hour ago. Interesting and lenghty interview. Both insisted there is very little overlap of products and services and don't expect problems from the FTC. You might find the video on the web site any time now.
This should be good for one of my engineering portfolios. Du Pont has some lucrative patents, but I always worried about them keeping up to speed with the research and development wing. A merger should offset any short-term troubles that might have been brewing.
I had owned both for a while, and sold them both Wednesday when they both popped up double digits - I made a nice little profit on Dow, and basically broke even on Du Pont.
