Merck KgAA offers $7.2B for Millipore

It won't be Thermo Fisher buying Millipore. Merck KgAA has swooped in to offer $6 billion, or $107 per share, for the bioresearch and bioproduction company. Including debt, the deal is valued at $7.2 billion. The deal will boost Merck's chemicals business, which currently generates 25 percent of its total revenue, the company says in a statement. With the Millipore buyout, that number will grow to 35 percent. And it gives the developer a strong source of revenue that's not subject to the uncertainties of drug development.

The German company says it intends to retain Millipore's headquarters in Billerica, Massachusetts and combine it with Merck's U.S. chemical headquarters. It also plans to build on Millipore's workforce and retain its senior management. Merck expects that the combined business will generate annual cost synergies of around $100 million (€ 75 million), which it expects to realize within three years from the closing of the transaction, according to a statement. 

In 2009, Millipore generated sales of $1.7 billion, with roughly 6,000 employees in more than 30 countries. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2010.

- check out the release from Millipore
- read this Mass High Tech report
- and here's more from Reuters

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