Monsanto Buys Assets Of Two Biotech Firms

Agriculture giant Monsanto has bought significant assets from two plant biotechnology firms. Monsanto will absorb the plant traits business of Rosetta Green, an Israeli company that specializes in using microRNA genes to improve major crops. The purchase, worth $35 million, is pending approval by the Israeli government. Separately, Monsanto bought a collection of microbes that can improve crop productivity from Agradis, a spin-off of Synthetic Genomics, for an undisclosed sum. Monsanto also signed a multiyear research deal with Synthetic Genomics to screen microbe-plant communities for beneficial microbes.