Bayer vs Visa: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Bayer and Visa side by side

1. 1863Bayer

   Bayer Founded in Barmen, Germany

   Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott entered Friedrich Bayer et. Compagnie into the commercial register in Barmen, Germany, on August 1, 1863, to make synthetic fuchsine and aniline dyes for the textile industry using the new coal-tar chemistry.

2. 1898Bayer

   Heroin Marketed as a Cough Suppressant

   Bayer began selling diacetylmorphine under the trademark Heroin as a cough suppressant and a supposedly non-addictive substitute for morphine. It stayed in Bayer's range until after World War I, long after its addictiveness was understood.

3. 1899Bayer

   Aspirin Registered as a Trademark

   The Bayer chemist Felix Hoffmann had synthesized acetylsalicylic acid in a stable, pure form in 1897, and Bayer registered the trademark Aspirin on March 6, 1899. It became the first mass-market synthetic medicine and is still one of the most widely used.

4. 1903Bayer

   Veronal Barbiturate Sleep Aid Launched

   Bayer licensed diethylbarbituric acid from Emil Fischer and Joseph von Mering and sold it as Veronal, the first barbiturate sleep aid.

5. 1912Bayer

   Headquarters Moved to Leverkusen

   Under Carl Duisberg, Bayer moved its main chemical plant and head office to Leverkusen on the Rhine, building one of the largest industrial chemical sites in Europe. Leverkusen is still the group headquarters.

6. 1918Bayer

   US Assets Confiscated During World War I

   Bayer's US assets and trademarks, including the Aspirin trademark, were confiscated by the Alien Property Custodian and sold to Sterling Products. Bayer lost its largest export market and the right to its own name in North America for decades.

7. 1925Bayer

   Merger into IG Farben

   Bayer merged with BASF, Hoechst, Agfa and other German chemical companies to form IG Farbenindustrie AG, then the largest chemical and pharmaceutical group in the world. IG Farben's role in the Nazi war effort led the Allies to dissolve it after World War II.

8. 1932Bayer

   Prontosil Discovered by Gerhard Domagk

   Gerhard Domagk, leading a research team in the Bayer laboratories, developed Prontosil, the first sulfonamide antibacterial and the forerunner of modern antibiotics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939 for the work.

9. 1951Bayer

   Re-established After the IG Farben Dissolution

   Bayer was reincorporated as Farbenfabriken Bayer AG in 1951 after the Allied dissolution of IG Farben and rebuilt as an independent chemical and pharmaceutical company during West Germany's post-war recovery.

10. 1958Visa

    BankAmericard launched

    Bank of America launched BankAmericard, the direct predecessor to Visa.

11. 1976Visa

    Visa name adopted

    The network adopted the Visa name to support international acceptance and brand consistency.

12. 1994Bayer

    US Bayer Trademark Rights Reclaimed

    Bayer bought Sterling Winthrop's over-the-counter drug business from SmithKline Beecham for about USD 1 billion, recovering the US and Canadian rights to the Bayer name and the Bayer Cross confiscated in 1918, plus the Aspirin trademark in Canada.

13. 2001Bayer

    Baycol Withdrawn Worldwide

    Bayer voluntarily withdrew its cholesterol drug Baycol, sold as Lipobay outside the United States, in August 2001 after cases of fatal rhabdomyolysis, particularly at higher doses and in combination with gemfibrozil.

14. 2006Bayer

    Schering AG Acquired for About EUR 17 Billion

    Bayer acquired Schering AG of Berlin for about $19.2 billion (EUR 17 billion) after counter-bidding against a hostile approach from Merck KGaA, adding the Mirena contraceptive franchise, oncology assets and a European pharmaceutical sales force.

15. 2008Visa

    Visa IPO

    Visa became a public company, changing the economics from a bank association structure to a shareholder-owned company.

16. 2014Bayer

    Merck Consumer Care Acquired for USD 14.2 Billion

    Bayer closed the purchase of the consumer care business of Merck and Co. on October 1, 2014 for USD 14.2 billion in cash, adding Claritin, Coppertone and Dr. Scholl's and making Bayer one of the largest non-prescription medicine companies in the world.

17. 2015Bayer

    Covestro Spin-off

    Bayer listed its materials science division as Covestro through an IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, ending its presence in plastics and polymers and leaving a group focused on pharmaceuticals, consumer health and crop science.

18. 2016Visa

    Alfred F. Kelly Jr. becomes CEO

    Alfred F. Kelly Jr. became CEO of Visa in 2016. Chief executive of Visa from December 2016 to January 2023, when Ryan McInerney succeeded him; Kelly then served as executive chairman.

19. 2018Bayer

    Monsanto Acquisition Completed for About USD 63 Billion

    Bayer completed the acquisition of Monsanto on June 7, 2018, paying USD 128 per share, about USD 63 billion in total, the largest foreign acquisition by a German company.

20. 2020Bayer

    USD 10.9 Billion Roundup Settlement

    Bayer agreed to pay about USD 10.9 billion to settle roughly 113,000 Roundup claims while continuing to maintain that glyphosate does not cause cancer. The programme did not end the litigation and new claims kept arriving.

21. 2020Visa

    Acquired Plaid (abandoned)

    Visa acquired Plaid (abandoned) for $5.3 billion. Visa agreed in January 2020 to buy US data-connectivity fintech Plaid for USD 5.3 billion.

22. 2022Visa

    Tink acquisition

    Visa completed its purchase of Stockholm-based open banking platform Tink in March 2022.

23. 2023Bayer

    Bill Anderson Becomes CEO

    Werner Baumann retired at the end of May 2023 after 35 years at Bayer. Bill Anderson, previously head of Roche's pharmaceuticals division and of Genentech, joined the Board of Management in April and became CEO on June 1, 2023.

24. 2023Visa

    Ryan McInerney becomes CEO

    Ryan McInerney became Visa's CEO after serving as president.

25. 2024Bayer

    Dynamic Shared Ownership Rolled Out

    Bayer began introducing the Dynamic Shared Ownership operating model, replacing layers of middle management with self-directed teams.

26. 2025Bayer

    Nubeqa Approved in the US for Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer

    The FDA approved Nubeqa (darolutamide) in June 2025 for metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, a third indication, followed by EU authorization in July 2025.

27. 2025Visa

    Revenue reaches $40.0B

    Visa reported $40.0 billion in fiscal 2025 net revenue.

28. 2026Bayer

    Supreme Court Preemption Ruling and Proposed USD 7.25 Billion Roundup Class Settlement

    In February 2026 Monsanto proposed a US nationwide class settlement funded by declining annual payments of up to USD 7.25 billion over as long as 21 years, which received preliminary approval in March 2026.

Acquisitions

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