CHICAGO/KANSAS CITY (Reuters) — With its shares trading at three-year-lows since it abandoned a $46 billion bid to buy Syngenta in August, Monsanto plans to offer its shareholders a new corporate vision: a future in big data.
Monsanto executives are seeking to reposition the company as a business built on data science and services, as well as its traditional chemicals, seeds and genetic traits operations, chief technology officer Robert Fraley said.
“We transformed from industrial chemical company to a biotech company, then to a seeds company,” Fraley said.
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“Now, we’re transforming again.”
Fraley and others have met with 200 technology start-ups in recent months and identified five as potential acquisition targets, pending Monsanto’s testing of products they make, company sources said.
Monsanto is seeking to provide services, software and hardware tools that use data to help farmers boost their crop yields by understanding what is happening with their fields. This includes catching shifts in soil chemistry, being more precise with their seed choices and knowing how they should apply pesticides in various conditions.
Monsanto’s initial moves into the sector have had spotty results.
