BASF, Bayer Settle Over Insecticides

German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer said it had agreed to pay compensation to close rival BASF to settle a bitter legal battle over the sale of parts of Bayer's insecticides business in 2003. "We have reached an agreement, but both parties have agreed not disclose any details of its terms," a Bayer spokesman said. The two companies had long been at loggerheads over a transaction concerning a number of crop protection products, including the insecticide Fipronil, in 2003. Bayer had been ordered to sell the activities as a condition for its acquisition of CropScience from Franco-German life sciences giant Aventis. But after BASF acquired the activities from Bayer for €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion), it subsequently claimed that Bayer had deliberately withheld key information regarding the business. Concretely, BASF accused Bayer of not disclosing updated business developments with respect to Fipronil in Brazil and Korea in the third quarter of 2002 and not disclosing updated business expectations for 2003 and the following years.