In September 2012, Syngenta placed a bid of 403 million euros ($522 million) for the acquisition of Devgen as part of a wave of large ag companies buying biotech companies.[22][23] The offer came six months after the companies had signed an agreement under which Syngenta would have developed sprayable RNAi-based crop protection products based on Devgen's technology.[24] The rationale for Syngenta to acquire Devgen was stated by Syngenta spokeswoman Jennifer Gough as follows: "It's a very important expansion of our rice strategy, one of our eight key crops", she said.