The recession was especially cruel to demand in the chemical industry, already buckling under volatile prices and environmental concerns. Those conditions led CEO Andrew Liveris to offer $16.3 billion for the very profitable specialty chemical firm Rohm & Haas, but the deal stumbled in December 2008 when funding fell through. Liveris delayed, but Rohm sued, forcing Dow into more than $9 billion in practically-junk debt. Dow unloaded Rohm's Morton Salt unit and the Styron plastics business, but survival also meant closing plants and slashing jobs, though the firm continues to invest in fuel, including replacing natural gas with ethanol to make plastics.--J.S. |
| Key financials |
$ millions |
% change
from 2008 |
| Revenues |
44,945.0 |
-21.9 |
| Profits |
648.0 |
11.9 |
| Assets |
65,937.0 |
— |
| Stockholders' equity |
20,555.0 |
— |
| Market value (3/26/2010) |
34,577.8 |
— |
| Profits as % of |
|
| Revenues |
1.4 |
| Assets |
1.0 |
| Stockholders' equity |
3.2 |
| Earnings per share |
|
| 2009 $ |
0.32 |
| % change from 2008 |
-48.4 |
| 1999-2009 annual growth rate % |
-16.6 |
| Total return to investors |
% |
| 2009 |
94.1 |
| 1999-2009 annual rate |
-0.8 |
| 4 | Monsanto | 197 | 11,740.0 | | 5 | Mosaic | 231 | 10,298.0 | | 6 | Praxair | 262 | 8,956.0 | | 7 | Air Products & Chemicals | 273 | 8,381.4 | | 8 | Ashland | 280 | 8,106.0 | | 9 | Huntsman | 293 | 7,763.0 | | 10 | Sherwin-Williams | 319 | 7,094.2 | | 11 | Avery Dennison | 362 | 5,952.7 | | 12 | Ecolab | 365 | 5,900.6 | | 13 | Celanese | 414 | 5,082.0 | | 14 | Eastman Chemical | 415 | 5,047.0 | | 15 | Lubrizol | 453 | 4,586.3 |
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