http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_15/b3624019.htm
The potential of the scientific advances is strikingly clear. But whether businesses can capitalize on this revolution is a more difficult question. Investors and businesses seeking profits in agriculture have been frustrated before. What's different this time, however, is that some of the world's biggest companies have bet their futures on the new technology. Old-line industrials such as DuPont (DD), Monsanto (MTC), and Dow Chemical (DOW) are doing a flurry of agro deals, scrambling to transform themselves. European drug companies such as Novartis (NVTSY) and Hoechst (HOE), now merging with Rhone-Poulenc, are rushing in despite the doubts of their home consumers.
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http://www.monsanto.com/who_we_are/history.asp
2000
The original Monsanto enters into a merger and changes its name to Pharmacia Corporation.
2000
A new Monsanto Company, based on the previous agricultural division of Pharmacia, is incorporated as a stand-alone subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company. (Pharmacia itself eventually becomes a subsidiary of Pfizer, in 2003).
2002
The new Monsanto Company is spun off from Pharmacia and is now a separate company.
A new Monsanto Company, based on the previous agricultural division of Pharmacia, is incorporated as a stand-alone subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company. (Pharmacia itself eventually becomes a subsidiary of Pfizer, in 2003).