The seed manufacturer has lost in court – and there are many more processes are running. The company has underestimated the dangers of glyphosate solid. The boss could be the cost of the Job.
comment by Elisabeth Dostert Elisabeth Dostert follow on Twitter send an E-Mail
investors are merciless. Panic selling shareholders this Wednesday, the share price of the German Agro – and pharmaceutical company Bayer, after the recent decision in the case, had Monsanto made the round. Members of the jury of a US court decided in the night to Wednesday, the weed killer Roundup with the active ingredient glyphosate has “significantly” contributed to the cancer of the plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman. It is the first Phase in a two-part process. In the first, it should be discussed whether there is a connection between glyphosate and cancer. There is!, the Jury says. In the second will now be clarified whether or not Monsanto deceived about the risks and how high is the claim for damages fails. The division had accounted for Bayer as a victory, also because the company was now able to send its own attorneys into the race. Now, the group is once again “disappointed”, as after the initial ruling last summer.
In August 2018 was granted to a court to the caretaker Dewayne Johnson was initially $ 289 million, later the sum had been reduced due to formal reasons, to 78 million dollars. Even then, the share price plummeted. Now the decline continues. Rightly so, because the recent decision weighs heavier. The first case, Bayer did as an individual case, the process had been brought forward due to the Severity of the disease. Not so much any more. The recent decision in one of three scheduled “Bellwether” method, a kind pattern method, the direction for future decisions. More than 11,000 lawsuits have been filed in the USA against Monsanto. The recent course of the process should lead to a wave of lawsuits that continue to swell.
63 billion dollars has been paid to Bayer for Monsanto. It is becoming increasingly clear: Bayer management Board Chairman Werner Baumann has been lost in the urge to the size, he ignored the risks inherent in Monsanto. The US group, for years in the criticism – for glyphosate, for genetically modified seeds and its business practices. Baumann was able to and had to know what he was getting himself into. He took the risk knowingly. And he still believes that all risks are overcome and at the end of the court proceedings to win in the United States. Baumann can’t help it. Anything else would be an admission that he was wrong, that the purchase was a mistake. The Acquisition of Monsanto should be his masterpiece, the crowning achievement of his career. If that fails, masterpiece, must go to the journeyman. Baumann has earned in the past years, millions. A out threw his vanity hurt, maybe. The consequences, however, have to bear the employees.
