Thermo Fisher Scientific ($TMO) has been racking up deals over the past few years to boost its diagnostics capabilities. Its latest target? Sequencing giant Illumina ($ILMN), to the tune of $30 billion.
Thermo Fisher has put forward a $30 billion all-stock offer, according to an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter, StreetInsider reported. Illumina, which notched $600 million in Q2 revenues, has a $25 billion market cap, and gained as much as 8% on news of the acquisition proposal. Analysts are critical of the prospects of the deal.
In April 2012, Illumina successfully fought off a $6.7 billion hostile takeover attempt by Roche ($RHHBY), which grew from the initial $5.7 billion offer the Big Pharma proposed in January. Illumina and its shareholders rejected the deal because the price was too low.
Thermo Fisher, with a $61 billion market cap, reels in about $17 billion in revenues annually. It has made a string of acquisitions in the last few years and filed a Form S-3 in March, registering a mixed securities shelf for "general corporate purposes" that "may include the acquisition of companies and businesses.”
Most recently, Thermo Fisher picked up FEI and its electron microscopy technology in a $4.2 billion transaction, while in March, it closed its $1.3 billion purchase of Affymetrix, expanding its drug research and genetic analysis capabilities in the process. Prior to that, the company acquired bioprocessing firm Advanced Scientifics for $300 million in 2015 and Life Technologies for $13.6 billion in 2014, adding it to its Life Sciences Solutions Group.
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