Defiant Dow Rejects Call To Break Up

Dow Chemical has rejected a suggestion from billionaire investor Daniel S. Loeb to split itself into separate specialty and commodity firms. Last month, Loeb, through his hedge fund Third Point, bought a large stake in Dow and argued that Dow had little reason to keep commodity and specialty chemical operations together in one company. In a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Dow says a strategic review found that “a break-up of the company in a significant manner (simplistically described as petrochemical and specialty chemical assets) created no productivity or capital allocation improvements, but rather negatively impacted Dow’s value proposition.” Third Point blasted Dow’s analysis for a lack of transparency and offered to sign a nondisclosure agreement so it could review the analysis and discuss it with Dow management.