Monsanto accepts takeover offer from Germany's Bayer AG

CREVE COEUR, Mo., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Monsanto Company Inc. has accepted a $128 dollars-a-share, $66 billion dollar overall takeover offer from German drug and chemical company Bayer AG.

In the largest all-cash deal ever, the tie-up will form the world's largest seeds and pesticides company -- controlling more than 25 percent of the global supply of seeds and pesticides, BBC News reports. There is a $2 billion break fee if the deal is not completed.

Other rival companies, including DuPont, Syngenta and Dow Chemical have announced mergers recently, which are awaiting approval from regulators. Bayer's supervisory board will meet on Wednesday in Frankfurt to approve the takeover offer.

German and U.S. competition regulators could reject the takeover due to the combined company's size and control over the global seeds and insecticide sprays market. Farming interest groups have criticized such mergers because it could lead to fewer choices and higher prices. Genetically modified foods, for which Monsanto -- headquartered in Creve Coeur, Mo., is best known, are also criticized by environmental activists.