DuPont and Dow Chemical to merge

This Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 photo shows a Dow Chemical plant in La Porte, Texas. Dow Chemical and the DuPont will attempt to merge in an all-stock deal that would create a colossal chemical producer worth $130 billion, before splitting into three separate companies. The deal announced Friday, Dec. 11, 2015 is being billed a merger of equals, to be called DowDuPont. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) This Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 photo shows a Dow Chemical plant in La Porte, Texas. Dow Chemical and the DuPont will attempt to merge in an all-stock deal that would create a colossal chemical producer worth $130 billion, before splitting into three separate companies. The deal announced Friday, Dec. 11, 2015 is being billed a merger of equals, to be called DowDuPont. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

By Associated Press December 11, 2015 1 min read

Closer to home

DuPont built a nylon processing plant in Hixson after World War II that grew into one of Chattanooga’s biggest manufacturers with more than 5,500 employees in the 1970s. DuPont, sold most of its 500-acre Chattanooga plant to Koch Industries in 2004, and the comany announced this month it is transferring the last of its local operatons – a performance polymers lab and production facility -to Richmond, Va., and cutting the remaining 40 jobs in Chattanooga. Dow Chemical has operated a Styrofaom insulation plant in Dalton, Ga., since 1965.

DOVER, Del. — Dow Chemical and the DuPont will attempt to merge in an all-stock deal that would create a colossal chemical producer worth $130 billion, before splitting into three separate companies.

The deal announced today is being billed a merger of equals, to be called DowDuPont.

The plan is to then split DowDuPont into three companies, one focused materials, one on agriculture and the last on specialty products.

Dow CEO Andrew Liveris will become executive chairman of the newly formed DowDuPont board of directors.