The Dow Chemical Company and Cargill have announced that Dow's wholly owned subsidiary, Mycogen Seeds, will acquire the assets of Cargill Hybrid Seeds from Cargill Incorporated.

Dow will integrate these assets with Mycogen Seeds, which is affiliated with Dow's wholly owned subsidiary, Dow AgroSciences LLC. The result will be a larger and more efficient platform from which to launch biotechnology products.

All seed research The purchase will include all seed research, production and distribution assets of Cargill Hybrid Seeds in the U.S. and Canada, except Cargill's InterMountain Canola, Goertzen Seed Research and the western Canadian seed distribution business.

Cargill Hybrid Seeds develops and sells corn, soybean, sunflower, alfalfa and sorghum seed in the U.S. and Canada.

Mycogen develops and sells corn, soybean, alfalfa, sunflower, canola and sorghum seed in the U.S. and Canada. The additional seed operations will make this new seed platform the third-largest U.S. seed corn producer.

The sale was expected to close by Oct. 31, 2000. Financial terms were not disclosed.

This agreement is consistent with the objective to selectively expand Mycogen's retail seed presence in support of our plans to market insect resistance traits and other biotechnology products," said Pete Siggelko, global leader, Plant Genetics & Biotechnology, Dow AgroSciences. "This move complements Dow AgroSciences' goal of value growth through mergers, acquisitions and alliances, as well as our new product development efforts.

Best mix? "Both Cargill Hybrid Seeds and Mycogen Seeds bring outstanding people, germplasm, operations and research capabilities to this new seeds organization. There will be an analysis to determine the best mix needed to produce an effective seed platform for delivering new products to market more quickly and profitably," he explained.

Siggelko said the agreement would not affect the sales, service or distribution of seed products from Cargill Hybrid Seeds and Mycogen Seeds during the 2001 growing season.

Strong network We are very pleased to have found a good home for Cargill Hybrid Seeds - one that leverages Dow AgroSciences' broad range of biotechnology and crop protection capabilities with our strong seed product and distribution network," said Cargill Executive Vice President, Fritz Corrigan.