The company now plans to move businesses totaling more than $8 billion in annual sales from its materials science division to the specialty-Chemical unit.

Dow and DuPont's plan has been to split into agriculture, specialty chemicals and materials units after their $130-billion merger.

Tuesday's announcement comes in the wake of intense shareholder pressure asking for a change in the way Dowdupont - worth about $157 billion - was split.

In May, Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC questioned whether the three spinoffs were "appropriate or if the creation of additional companies or divestitures would further enhance shareholder value".

Loeb had also suggested moving several businesses from the material science unit to specialty products.