Digging deeper into the precision agriculture business, Deere & Co. announced Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire the Precision Planting LLC equipment business from The Climate Corp., a subsidiary of Monsanto Co. Deere and The Climate Corp. jointly announced the deal in a news release, saying the acquisition includes a digital ag collaboration agreement. The agreements enable exclusive, near real-time data connectivity between John Deere farm equipment and the Climate FieldView platform. The agreements also represent the industry’s first and only near real-time, in-cab wireless connection to John Deere equipment by a third party. "To maximize the value of digital agriculture, farmers need solutions for simple and seamless collection of in-field agronomic data," said Mike Stern, The Climate Corp.'s president and chief operating officer. "Our agreements enable farmers to combine the industry-leading technology of John Deere equipment with Climate FieldView, the platform that offers farmers the broadest equipment connectivity in the industry backed by data science," he added. "This connectivity allows farmers to collect and directly share data to the Climate cloud, enables data visualization in the cab and supports the development of customized data science-driven insights." The deal is the Moline-based Deere's latest move to accelerate its leadership position in precision agriculture. The deal comes one day after Deere announced it has agreed to acquire Monosem, the European market leader in precision planters. Last month, Deere announced the formation of a joint venture, SageInsights, with data software firm DN2K to focus on further development of DN2K's existing cloud software platform called My AgCentral for ag retailers and advisers. John May, Deere's president-agricultural solutions and chief information officer, said the agreements will "allow John Deere to extend the range of retrofit options available from Precision Planting to many more products and into new geographies." In an interview, Deere spokesman Ken Golden said the acquisition also will allow Deere to extend the precision ag solutions to Deere customers with earlier model planters as well as to customers with other brands of equipment. "The acquisition of Precision Planting supports John Deere's position as a technology leader offering innovation that enhances the productivity of our customers around the world," he said. Under the terms, Deere will acquire the majority of Precision Planting's assets, including its facilities, brand, the majority of its product portfolio, including hardware sensors, actuators and display systems. The agreement also includes Precision Planting's leadership, a majority of its employees, and relationships with its dealers and customers, Golden said. Climate will retain the digital agriculture portfolio, including ownership of its FieldView app and cloud platform. The deal faces an approval process by relevant antitrust authorities and is expected to close within 60 to 90 days. Terms were not disclosed. Source - http://qctimes.com