Bayer-Monsanto Merger

[OneFineAcre]

Not unusual at all for any company to ask for proxy votes, on any kind of venture or even at an annual stockholder's meeting. I've received a couple dozen such requests for my vote by proxy over the years from different companies --It happens all the time.

As far as the merger itself, any and all of the things they may do as a M&A entity would most take place as separate companies as well. The buy by Bayer would probably cut back on their own R&D because they will have less $$ to play around with after the multi billion $ purchase. SEC and other regulatory agencies will still have to approve the deal, especially since Bayer is a foreign (German) company.

Yes I'm familiar with proxy solicitations.

Just thought it was interesting that it was scrolling across Back Yard Herds since there are probably not to many Monsanto and Bayer stock holders blogging here.

My thoughts as to the merger itself is that directors and management should do what is in the best interest of their shareholders.

I work for a bank that has been quite active in M&A ourselves recently thanks to Dodd-Frank

We have bought 3 regional banks in the last 2 years along with 80 branches from Citibank in TX.


The smaller banks can't make the investments to meet the new regulations and still give a decent return to their shareholders.

Larger banks like my employer need to increase revenue through acquisitions to gain the economy of scale to cover our investments and offer a return to our shareholders.

 

[NH homesteader]

Yes but I also posted somewhere that I need new windows and right now there is an ad for storm windows on my home page. So... The real question is how does the internet know what we are talking about?

 

[OneFineAcre]

Yes but I also posted somewhere that I need new windows and right now there is an ad for storm windows on my home page. So... The real question is how does the internet know what we are talking about?

good question

 

[babsbag]

cookies and tags

 

[greybeard]

good question

Simple answer. History and stored session cookies. On a PC or Laptop and maybe even on iPhones, watch your lower left area of your browser's tab.
You can watch as little programs such as as 'doubleclick', 'Google APIs', (shows up as apis) - 'Google adsense', and others load even as the web page itself loads. Most people only see the "waiting for bakyardherds"..thing, but if you pay close attention, you will see other things load as well.
Why?They are all part of Google, the largest ad service on the internet, and they attempt to place ads that each unique user might find attractive. IOW, the ads one person sees, will be different than the ads another sees, and this is based on previous searches and previous web pages visited. All that history is stored as 'session cookies'. Some session cookies help the website identify you so you don't have to log on every single time you open up BYH, other cookies identify your interests. You agreed to this when you did the 'I agree" part of the 'terms of service' portion of registering on any forum and upon any browser installation. (read the fine print) This is all spelled out in BYH's page regarding cookies. *** If you have cleared out all cache, internet history and deleted all cookies, the ads you see will just be random. The circled part lower left in the image below is an example of one of these apps that helps track where you have been--you have to look fast to see it when you first open BYH and other web pages.

Clearing history..
Sometimes this will help. In Chrome, go to settings/clear browsing data. That gets rid of some of the store crap, but note what it says down in the red box.....Google is not to be so easily denied--they make lots of money from companies wanting you to see their ads.

To get rid of everything (almost) you will need to use a 3rd party service--most anti virus programs have one included. Persistent cookies, that store info your browser needs to operate, and load web pages themselves, as well as personalizations you have intentionally chosen (font/font size/color/zoom aspect etc) are not deleted.
At any given time, there are also bots running around even the most legit of websites. This particular website usually does not show which bots are skulking about, but it does tell ya how many, but many do and you will see the bots identified.

From a different website:
(I have intentionally removed all the registered 'human' users leaving only the bots because each username was also a profile link)

WHO IS ONLINE
In total there are 86 users online :: 12 registered, 2 hidden and 72 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 489 on Fri May 25, 2012 4:30 am

Registered users: Bing [Bot], Exabot [Bot], Google [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Yahoo [Bot]

***http://www.backyardherds.com/help/cookies

All of this, or at least a great deal of it helps track your shopping (and other) interests, and dictates what kind of ads show up for each of you.
Ad blockers can help, as can good cookie managers.

 

[babsbag]

That was a simple answer??? Mine was shorter...cookies and tags. But you did a great job of explaining how it all works; many people think their computer is magically the way it pulls up custom ads for them. While I don't need it, it is certainly better than annoying content that I have NO interest in. While I was shopping for a dress to wear to my son's wedding I got many ads for dresses...wedding is over, can we can go back to tractors and tools? Please, no more dresses. I should delete the cookies and see what I get.

 

[greybeard]

Lol. I intentionally didn't post this news on here because I don't want to go there. I just knew it would eventually call for a moderator.

So. I'll zip it.

How so? Open discussion of any event that may (or may not) have an impact on our agricultural/livestock practices would seem to be a natural progression on any board such as this--why would a moderator need to be called? There's no rule here (AFAIK) preventing or even discouraging discussion of current events as long as they avoid politics & religion.
Case in point, Nifty's VFD thread regarding the new govt rules regarding antibiotic use. It definitely SHOULD be here at BYH, just as it is on every ag forum I'm on even tho it "could" be somewhat narrowly defined as politics since it was implemented by a govt agency. A big chem co merger is no less or more important or controversial, tho my personal view is that each of the 2 components of the Monsanto/Bayer merger would do the same things, whether as individual companies or part of a bigger single entity.

 

[NH homesteader]

I wasn't saying it was against the rules. I am very opinionated on the matter and didn't want to go there when some people are very opinionated in the opposite direction.
Being a newbie here I try to avoid hot topics. I have been criticized for my views on this subject in the past.

 

[greybeard]

Ah--ok. I've been criticized lots in my lifetime. I don't let it bother me--I was (deservedly) chewed out eyeball to eyeball by General Chapman, the Commandant of the Marine Corps (4 star general) in November 1971 in front of the whole base and several hundred civilian guests and spectators--everything since then pales in comparison, and is just water off my back. The man knew his business for sure.

 

[Mike CHS]

greybeard - going off track for a minute - your post reminded me of when I was a young 18 year old sailor taking a break during a working party. Admiral Hyman Rickover walked by our group and we got a good several minutes worth of butt chewing for failure to show respect. The old geezer was in plain blue overalls with no insignia so we had to ask the Senior Chief in charge of us to explain who he was and why we got chewed out.