Danaher to buy molecular diagnostics company Cepheid for $4 bn including debt

Danaher Corporation, a US science and technology company, today struck a deal to buy molecular diagnostics company Cepheid for $4 billion including debt, in order to boost its diagnostics business.

The move comes more than a year after Danaher acquired Pall Corp, a provider of filtration and purification solutions to life sciences and industry for approximately $13.6 billion.

Danaher, based in Washington D.C., is offering to pay $53 a share in cash, a 54-per cent premium to Cepheid's Friday closing price of $34.42.

The proposed acquisition has been approved by the board of both company, and the transaction is expected to be completed around the end of this year.

Danaher expects to finance the transaction with available cash and debt.

Cepheid will become part of Danaher's $5-billion diagnostics segment, and join the company's Beckman Coulter, Leica Biosystems and Radiometer businesses.

Cepheid, based in Sunnyvale, California, is a innovative global molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures, and markets accurate and easy to use molecular systems and tests.

Cepheid's fully automated GeneXpert systems enable rapid, sophisticated genetic testing and provide test results for the management of infectious diseases, among many clinical applications.

Cepheid generated annual revenues of $539 million in 2015, and expects to generate $618 to $635 million in revenues in 2016.

"We expect Cepheid to be an excellent complement to our existing Diagnostics businesses and to expand our runway for growth across the platform. Cepheid's extensive installed base, test menu and innovative product offering contribute to its market leadership in molecular diagnostics and we expect it to strengthen our position in this high-growth segment," said, Thomas Joyce, Danaher's president and CEO.