It's becoming clear that Robert B. Shapiro's vision exceeded his company's coffers and Wall Street's patience. Investors, analysts and some Monsanto Co. insiders believe Monsanto's chairman soon will make a deal that will dramatically alter his goal of engineering a life sciences company. A deal could come within a few weeks or a few months. But he has been the most passionate proponent, even as more well-heeled competitors have vacillated. Fiala and other analysts, who have followed Monsanto's transformation from a traditional chemical company, said Shapiro is being pressured by some events beyond his control.
Life sciences is a long-term strategy.
But these companies still view life sciences as a collection of components rather than as a unified business that weaves together all of the units. Monsanto is the leader in creating this vision, and it put its money where its mouth was. Shapiro's desire to buy seed companies stretched Monsanto's balance sheet and weakened its stock price, despite big revenue infusions from the herbicide Roundup and, this year, from the arthritis drug Celebrex. Seeking to finance his vision, Shapiro talked to many drug and chemical companies before embarking on an ill-fated merger plan with American Home Products Corp. last year. Monsanto is talking to many companies now, and Shapiro has often said that everybody in this business talks to everybody else.