Ashland Inc. and Hercules Inc. have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Ashland would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Hercules for $18.60 per share in cash and 0.093 of a share of Ashland common stock for each share of Hercules common stock. The total transaction value is approximately $3.3 billion, or $23.01 per Hercules share based on Ashland’s July 10 closing stock price and including $0.7 billion of net assumed debt. The transaction, which would create a major, gl...