Dow Chemical deal with Rohm & Haas near close?

Dow Chemical (DOW) backed away from its deal to buy specialty chemical company Rohm & Haas (ROH). Papers filed in a suit by Rohm to try to get Dow to close the deal indicate that Dow does not have much of a leg to stand on if it wants to walk away.

Most analysts suspect that when Dow lost the deal with Kuwait and the $7 billion that went with it, the biggest US chemical company lost most of the money it needed to complete the Rohm deal. The recession has also crippled the chemical business, making the merger less attractive.