 MEMC experienced heavy price-pressure from Japanese competition during the mid 1980s.Despite its success and increasing revenues, MEMC had to account for losses for a few years, leading to the decision of Monsanto, which was refocusing on chemicals, agriculture, and biotechnology products, to sell the electronic materials division.In 1989 the German company , the chemicals arm of the German conglomerate VEBA, acquired Monsanto Electronic Materials and combined it with Hüls' previous acquisition Dynamite Nobel Silicon (DNS) to form MEMC Electronic Materials.