Monsanto to sell Precision Planting farm equipment business to Deere & Co

Monsanto Co's subsidiary Climate Corp today announced a definitive agreement to sell its Precision Planting farm equipment business to Deere & Co for an undisclosed sum.

Under the terms of the agreements, Deere will buy Precision Planting LLC while Climate Corp will retain the digital agriculture portfolio that has been integrated into the Climate FieldView platform.

Precision Planting equipment business enables exclusive near real-time data connectivity between some of the John Deere farm equipment range and the Climate FieldView platform.

"To maximize the value of digital agriculture, farmers need solutions for simple and seamless collection of in-field agronomic data," said Mike Stern, president and chief operating officer for The Climate Corporation. "As a result of these milestone agreements, farmers will experience the fastest, most frequent and highest resolution third-party connectivity between John Deere's equipment and the Climate FieldView platform."

John May, president, agricultural solutions and chief information officer at Deere, said, "The agreements we are announcing allow John Deere to extend the range of retrofit options available from Precision Planting to many more products and into new geographies.''

John Deere said that the acquisition will strengthen its position as the most open platform in the industry both in its equipment and the cloud-based data management solution.

The companies said customers will have the option to share their current and historical agronomic data between the John Deere Operations Center and the Climate FieldView platform and seamlessly execute agronomic prescriptions with John Deere equipment.

John Deere manufactures agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment.

The Illinois-based company has a market cap of $26 billion and posted net income of $3.6 billion last year on revenues of $36 billion.

Monsanto is the world's largest seed company and a leading producer of genetically engineered seed and Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide.