Why Deere & Company is Paying $305 Million For the Privilege of Trimming Your Lettuce

If any company should be at the forefront of 21st-century agriculture, it's machinery giant Deere & Company (NYSE: DE). Staying true to its roots as a manufacturer of farm equipment, last month the company paid $305 million to acquire privately held Blue River Technology, a privately held California company that makes high-tech crop-spraying equipment.

Even for a Deere-sized enterprise, $305 million is a lot of green. Let's unpack the deal and see if it was worth the money.

California-based Blue River Technology was founded in 2011, with its stated goal "to make farming more sustainable through robotics and computer vision."

Source: Fool.com