Aaron Bouchie
 

On October 20, after a century-long metamorphosis, Monsanto Company (St. Louis, MO) raised $723 million through an initial public offering of 38,033,000 shares at $20 each. Formed in 1901 as a chemical company, Monsanto originally emerged on the New York Stock Exchange on October 10, 1929, opening with 500,000 shares at 76 cents—equivalent to $7.20 today. An agriculture division was not created until 1960, and struggled until the 1969 launch of Lasso herbicide—the predecessor of 1976's Roundup; biotechnology became a focus in 1981. Since then, Monsanto acquired pharmaceutical concern GD Searle (Skokie, IL) in 1985, spun off its chemical business Solutia (St. Louis, MO) in 1997, and merged with Pharmacia & UpJohn (Peapack, NJ) in April this year ( Nat. Biotechnol. 18, 141;MEDLINE). The resulting Pharmacia Corporation (Peapack, NJ) absorbed Searle and its pipeline, making Monsanto an entirely agricultural subsidiary.