
Monsanto Acquires Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For $930M - playhard
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/02/monsanto-acquires-weather-big-data-company-climate-corporation-for-930m/
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hollerith
I see that weather forecasting companies are now referred to as weather big
data companies, even though most people know that forecasting means crunching
large data sets.

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netcan
_" Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a
kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no
longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a
kick is just a kick." \- Bruce Lee_

It's a little cool kung fu master cryptic, but what he means is that before
you start boxing a punch is something you think you understand. It's hitting
someone with your fist. Simple concept. Then, if you practice boxing you
quickly build up an increasingly complex vocabulary: light-footed jab, leaping
lead hook, low cross. You learn that a counter to a looping right hook is
quick stiff jab and that it's very hard to get power into a straight punch if
you are moving backwards. Then (when you get to Bruce Lee level) you leave
those definitions behind. A punch is a punch. Even though there are infinite
variations, you don't need all those words. The complexity is implied and
understandable.

This is similar to a lot of other things. At first, designing web sites was
just designing web sites. No one knew what they were doing really. Then when
people had enough experience, learned new ways of doing things & technology
advanced they realized _" hey, these websites are really software not
documents and they're mostly about users creating content and interacting with
each other!"_ So we got Web 2.0 . I think we're back to web design is just web
design. _" Creating software that lets users interact with each other"_ is
implied.

Same with number crunching. Number crunching-> big data -> number crunching.

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tom_b
Congrats, I hope all the awesome Cascalog hackers at Climate Corporation made
out well in the acquisition. I was impressed by these guys out at Clojure/West
a couple of years ago.

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sgrove
Yeah, they're very kind to host many of the Clojure meetups here in SF, and
seem to be very sharp. They were working with some impressive amounts of data,
and made it look easy.

That said, Monsanto....

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sally85
....is what?

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toomuchtodo
The equivalent of an agriculture patent troll.

~~~
Ygg2
Or an evil wizard.

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pikewood
It's a smart move in several ways. For one, Monsanto has to grow all the seed
it is going to sell, so knowing which areas will most likely have the weather
patterns conducive to that particular hybrid will increase their yield.
Secondly, knowing what to expect in weather trends means they can decide what
to focus on for crop traits, both in research and marketing. The recent
drought caused Pioneer's first-to-market drought-tolerant seed to sell out,
and I'm sure Monsanto is looking to find the next hit seller trait.

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randomdata
I think it is worth mentioning that Monsanto is a general technology company,
which includes the seed technology you mention, but they are also involved in
research and advancement elsewhere, like in precision farming. Weather
forecasting technology ties into a lot of areas of their business.

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sumit_psp
I don't think this has a lot to do with good PR. It's a smart acquisition.
Weather plays a big role in agriculture in Asian countries.

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bayesianhorse
Why in Asia more than in other parts of the world? Mitigation of weather-
related risks and oportunities should apply to any farmer with enough
sophistication.

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elangoc
Maybe the comment was more about the agricultural economy. Most farmers have
been and continue to be small-scale farmers (a few acres?), and since there
are a lot more people in Asia, I'd expect a lot more farmers. I'm guessing
that climate changes would hit 1000 people each with 2-acre farms in Asia
differently than it would the pocketbook of 1 person with a 2000 acre farm in
America that grows crops that get partially subsidized by the US govt. The
role the govt plays (or doesn't, for example, b/c of excessive corruption), is
also a factor.

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bayesianhorse
We don't need no climate change to ruin a crop with hail storm, too little
rain fall or other circumstances.

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minimax
How was a startup able to offer an insurance product with only a few tens of
millions in VC? Were they partnering with someone? I would love to read more
about their business model.

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ig1
Most insurance companies have their insurance policies underwritten by a
reinsurer:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance)

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minimax
You're right. I looked a little more on their site and found:

 _The policies are reinsured by Swiss RE Corporate Solutions Ltd which also
has an A.M. Best rating of "A+" (Superior)._

It looks like Swiss Re has a pretty significant global crop insurance
business.

[http://www.swissre.com/reinsurance/insurers/agriculture/](http://www.swissre.com/reinsurance/insurers/agriculture/)

edit: I'm still a little confused though. What is the point of developing
their own sophisticated risk model when the price of the policy will
ultimately depend on Swiss Re's risk model?

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d2vid
Former Climate employee here.

Swiss Re reinsures Climate Corp, not any individual policy. So Climate Corp
sets the price for each policy and pays out each claim. Swiss Re pays out to
Climate Corp if in aggregate all the claims are greater than the price
charged.

Does that make sense?

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minimax
It does. Thanks!

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knowaveragejoe
The conspiracy crowd is going to go nuts with this.

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malkia
Yes, I can't wait for the next nutcase to talk about Genetically Modified Bio-
Weather Weapons :)

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VladRussian2
we have backdoors/trojans in chips. While not in seeds? :)

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joshu
Congrats to David and the team! (I was an early investor, back when it was
called Weatherbill)

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joshfraser
When I visit that page all the videos start auto-playing at the same time.

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cryptoz
It's a good time to be in the weather data and forecasting business. So much
is possible now that was unthinkable just 5 years ago.

