Monument Circle Acquisition Corp (MON)

[Democritus_of_Abdera]

Monsanto’s Rebuttal of AAI’s Antitrust Argument...

News accounts regarding Monsanto’s anti-competitive activities often reference Diana Moss’ comments to the USDA and the DOJ (Antitrust Division) in connection with their hearings on “Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy” (see #msg-44002179).

Recently, Vandy Howell et al. of Cornerstone Research and Arnold & Porter LLP have responded to Diana Moss on Monsanto’s behalf (see:
http://www.monsanto.com/search.asp?queryText=competition_innovation_in_american_agriculture ).

As an investor trying to understand the competitive landscape in the seed business, I found Howell et al.’s rebuttal to contain several concise and valuable data summaries. The most interesting sections were those on pp 41-43 (entitled: “VIII. There is no Evidence that Monsanto’s Stacking Policies have restrained Competition or Innovation and such Effects are Implausible”) and on pp 43-45 (entitled: “There is no Basis for Compulsory Licensing”).

In addition,

1. There is a detailed, but concise, list of the current publicly disclosed products in the pipelines of the major innovators (i.e. DuPont, Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, & BASF); see the section entitled “C. The AAI Paper Ignores Information about Actual Product Pipelines”, pp 27-33.

2. Two charts detailing the probable sequencing of projected industry-wide seed trait introductions give the investor a sense of timing regarding critical product introductions by Monsanto and its competitors (see pg 31-32, i.e. slides 14 & 15 at http://www.graintrade.org.au/about_nacma?search_domain=S&search_type=pf&search_category=0&q=NAEGA&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go&siteid=3&pageid=95&mysource_site_extension=search&new_search=true )

3. There is a list of traits that have been commercialized in the US in Appendix 1 (derived from dmrkynetec data).

4. There is a summary of trait profiles offered by the various companies in Appendix 2 (derived from dmrkynetec data).