corporate merger

As a European-based conglomerate prepares to buy U.S. restaurant chain Panera Bread, a finance professor at Washington University in St. Louis says the move points to the growth of the private equity industry as a viable alternative to the public market.

Pharma giant Bayer has acquired St. Louis-based Monsanto. After months of negotiation, the German company went back to the bargaining table this week, and on Sept. 14 the seed firm’s board approved the $66 billion cash offer. Radhakrishnan Gopalan, associate professor of finance at Olin Business School, said Monsanto needed to accept the deal.