US forces Germany's Bayer to shed $9 billion in ag business before buying Monsanto

German drug-make Bayer has agreed to sell agricultural businesses and assets worth about $9 billion to chemical company BASF in order to proceed with its proposed $66 billion purchase of St. Louis-based Monsanto.

The divestiture is the large antitrust-enforcement settlement ever reached by the Justice Department, according to CNBC.

The assets include Bayer's canola, soybean and vegetable seed businesses, as well as its Liberty herbicide business, all of which currently compete with Monsanto products. The department said the sell-off will preserve competition threatened by Bayer's acquisition.

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