Bayer AG
Pharmaceuticals / Life Sciences / AgricultureFounded 1863- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
Bayer AG
Company History
Founded 1863 in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Last reviewed: 2025-07-15 · By Swet Parvadiya
Bayer AG is burning through $4.8 billion annually in special charges—primarily for Roundup litigation, restructuring, and impairments—while its market capitalization of $38.7 billion has fallen below the $66 billion it paid for Monsanto in 2018, making the acquisition the worst corporate deal in German history and leaving the 162-year-old company's entire enterprise valued at less than the purchase price of a single division. CEO Bill Anderson, the first American to lead Bayer, has cut over 12,000 positions, halved management ranks, and slashed the dividend to the legal minimum of $0.1 per share in a desperate bid to execute a five-priority transformation before litigation costs and generic erosion force a breakup of the conglomerate. With Nubeqa reaching $1.7 billion in sales (+78% YoY) and Kerendia growing 67%, the pharmaceuticals pipeline shows genuine promise, but Xarelto's accelerating generic decline and Crop Science's 19% glyphosate sales collapse create a revenue valley that new products cannot yet fill.
Friedrich Bayer (1825-1880) was the co-founder of Bayer AG, establishing the company in 1863 as a dyestuffs manufacturer in Barmen, Germany. A dye salesman by trade, Bayer recognized the commercial potential of synthetic aniline dyes that were replacing natural dyes in the textile industry. He partnered with Johann Friedrich Weskott, a master dyer, to create Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Comp., with Bayer handling commercial operations and Weskott managing production. The company's early products included fuchsine and aniline dyes. After Friedrich Bayer's death in 1880, the company was converted into a joint-stock corporation, and his son Friedrich Bayer Jr. (1851-1920), a chemist, joined and led the company's expansion into pharmaceuticals, culminating in the 1899 launch of Aspirin.
Johann Friedrich Weskott (1821-1876) was the co-founder and technical partner of Bayer AG, establishing the company alongside Friedrich Bayer in 1863 in Barmen, Germany. A master dyer by profession, Weskott brought manufacturing expertise and technical knowledge of dye production processes to the partnership. While Bayer handled commercial operations, Weskott managed production and quality. He died in 1876, before the company's major diversification into pharmaceuticals, but his technical foundation enabled the manufacturing capabilities that supported Bayer's expansion from a small dyeworks into a global chemical enterprise.
Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott established Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Comp. in Barmen, Germany, as a manufacturer of synthetic fuchsine and aniline dyes. The company capitalized on the emerging coal-tar chemistry revolution that was transforming the textile industry.
Chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesized acetylsalicylic acid in a stable, pure form, and Bayer registered the trademark 'Aspirin' on March 6, 1899. The drug became the world's first mass-market synthetic pharmaceutical and remains one of the most widely consumed medications in history, with over 10 billion tablets taken annually.
Bayer began marketing heroin (diacetylmorphine) as a non-addictive substitute for morphine, trademarking it as a cough suppressant and treatment for tuberculosis and pneumonia. The drug remained a Bayer trademark until after World War I.
Bayer licensed diethylbarbituric acid from Emil Fischer and Joseph von Mering, marketing it as Veronal—the first barbiturate sleep aid. Systematic research led to the discovery of phenobarbital in 1911, which became a mainstay of epilepsy treatment and remains on the WHO List of Essential Medicines.
Bayer's U.S. assets and trademarks, including the Aspirin trademark, were confiscated by the Alien Property Custodian and sold to Sterling Products. The company lost its American market for decades and was forced to rebuild its international presence from scratch.
Bayer merged with BASF, Hoechst, Agfa, and other German chemical companies to form IG Farbenindustrie AG (IG Farben), creating the world's largest chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. IG Farben's subsequent role in the Nazi war effort would lead to its dissolution after World War II.
Gerhard Domagk, leading a research team at Bayer Laboratories, developed Prontosil—the first sulfonamide antibacterial and forerunner of modern antibiotics. Domagk received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939 for this discovery, which saved countless lives from bacterial infections.
Following World War II, the Allied Control Council dissolved IG Farben due to its role in the Holocaust and Nazi war effort. Bayer was reincorporated as Farbenfabriken Bayer AG and quickly regained its position as a leading global chemical and pharmaceutical company during West Germany's economic miracle.
Bayer purchased Sterling Winthrop's over-the-counter drug business from SmithKline Beecham for $1 billion, reclaiming the U.S. and Canadian trademark rights to 'Bayer' and the Bayer Cross that had been lost during World War I, along with ownership of the Aspirin trademark in Canada.
Bayer acquired Schering AG in a white knight defense against Merck KGaA's hostile bid, adding significant pharmaceutical capabilities including the Mirena contraceptive franchise and oncology assets. The acquisition was the largest in Bayer's history until the Monsanto deal.
Bayer spun off its materials science division as Covestro through an IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, focusing the remaining company on life sciences and ending its presence in plastics and polymers.
Bayer completed the acquisition of Monsanto for $66 billion ($63 billion equity plus assumed debt), the largest acquisition by a German company in history. The deal required divestment of significant assets to BASF for regulatory approval and was immediately followed by the first Roundup cancer verdict, triggering litigation that has now exceeded 165,000 claims.
Bayer agreed to settle approximately 113,000 Roundup claims for $10.9 billion, while maintaining that glyphosate is safe and does not cause cancer. The settlement did not resolve all claims, and new lawsuits continued to emerge.
Bill Anderson, former CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals and Genentech, became the first American Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO of Bayer AG on June 1, 2023, succeeding Werner Baumann. Anderson launched a comprehensive transformation program with five strategic priorities.
Bayer launched the Dynamic Shared Ownership operating model under CEO Bill Anderson, eliminating roughly 50% of management positions, reducing hierarchy layers, and cutting total headcount by over 12,000—from 102,048 to 89,556 by mid-2025. The company targets $2 billion in annual savings by 2026.
The U.S. FDA approved Nubeqa (darolutamide) for metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, the drug's third indication, based on the Phase III ARANOTE trial showing 40% risk reduction in high-volume disease and 70% in low-volume disease. Nubeqa achieved blockbuster status in 2024 with $1.66 billion in sales.
Bayer acquired Schering AG in a white knight defense against Merck KGaA's hostile bid, adding significant pharmaceutical capabilities including the Mirena contraceptive franchise, oncology assets, and a strong European pharmaceutical sales force. The acquisition was the largest in Bayer's history until the Monsanto deal.
Bayer acquired Monsanto to create the world's largest integrated agricultural inputs company, combining Bayer's crop protection chemistry with Monsanto's seed genetics, biotechnology traits, and digital agriculture platform (Climate FieldView). The deal required divestment of significant assets to BASF for regulatory approval.
Bayer purchased Sterling Winthrop's over-the-counter drug business from SmithKline Beecham to reclaim the U.S. and Canadian trademark rights to 'Bayer' and the Bayer Cross that had been confiscated during World War I, along with ownership of the Aspirin trademark in Canada.