DowDuPont. That is a news item that will resonate here in Midland, Dow Chemical's HQ town.
The proposed name is a good sign for the town that has two high schools, the Midland High Chemics and the dreaded Dow High Doughboys Chargers. Dow is actually slightly larger, with a market cap of 63 billion versus 59 billion for DuPont as we go to press; the financial markets aren't all that happy with the news, as both stocks are down a bit for the day.
That means we have a merger of rough equals, with Dow having the first name on the masthead. The first fear I had when I heard of the merger is that it would cost Midland jobs, as the merged company might have some of jobs done at the Pink Palace here in town migrate to DuPont HQ. Seeing Dow as first among equals helps mitigate that fear.
However, DuPont's CEO will be the CEO for DowDuPont with Dow's CEO settling for chairman of the board. That would indicate that HQ might not be in Midland.
However, the new company won't stay in one piece for long...
DowDuPont says it will spin off (tax free!) an agriculture company, a material sciences company and a specialty products company.
That adds to the intellectual indigestion. Will one of those spin-offs have their HQ here? Two? None? The plants here, mostly on the south edge of town, will likely not be affected much, but the HQ jobs will be in flux until we see how the merging and spinning shakes out.
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