Dow Chemical, DuPont merge to create $130 billion giant

New York: Dow Chemical and DuPont said on Friday they will merge to create the world's biggest chemical company.

The all-stock deal values the merged company at $130 billion (118.5 billion euros) and the new group will be split into three separate entities: agriculture, specialty chemicals and materials, they said.

Following the merger, DuPont said it would cut staff by 10 percent.
Dow Chief Executive Andrew Liveris will become executive chairman of the new company, DowDuPont, while DuPont's CEO Ed Breen will be his CEO.

"This transaction is a game-changer for our industry and reflects the culmination of a vision we have had for more than a decade to bring together these two powerful innovation and material science leaders," Liveris said in a statement.

The statement added that the "highly synergistic transaction" was expected to produce run-rate cost synergies of around $3 billion and approximately $1 billion in growth synergies.