U.S. antitrust regulators approve merger of DuPont and Dow

The long-delayed $62-billion merger of chemical giants DuPont and Dow has been approved by U.S. antitrust regulators.

The Justice Department said Thursday it would approve the deal as long as the companies sell off some herbicide and chemical units to preserve competition. Those sales are already in the works.

The merger was announced in December 2015 and was initially expected to close in the first half of 2016, but it was delayed several times while U.S. and foreign regulators reviewed it.

Once merged, DuPont and Dow plan to spin off into three public companies: one focusing on agriculture, one on material science and one on specialty products.

European regulators approved the deal in March.

The new company is to be called DowDuPont and have dual headquarters in Midland, Mich., and Wilmington, Del.