Rohm and Haas and Dow - Six Weeks On

Dow's acquisition of Rohm and Haas is a great opportunity for Dow to Rohm & Haas's hot electronics chemicals business. Dow has never been able to run a specialty business itself, and when the commodity market is hot, it uses its cash to buy some growth. Unfortunately it comes along with some currently profitable, but slow growth businesses, like coatings polymers and table salt.

This merger is interesting because the cultures are quite different, and commodity companies almost never manage to run specialty businesses well. I suspect that the internal focus of the former Rohm and Haas will make them poor competitors in the near future.