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German pharmaceutical titan Merck KGaA turns out to be the company gunning for an acquisition of Millipore Corp., and the Billerica life sciences company has agreed to their overtures to the tune of $7.2 billion in cash.
That makes each share of Millipore (NYSE:MIL) common stock worth $107 to Merck, which has said it will buy all outstanding shares. After the deal closes, Merck will keep Millipore based in Billerica, officials said, and plans to retain its senior management. Merck’s U.S. chemicals unit will also be based in Billerica after the merger.
While no other details about Millipore personnel were in the release announcing the purchase, Merck did say it planned to “build on Millipore’s talented work force.” Merch did say, however, that it “expects that the combined business will generate annual cost synergies” of around $100 million, within three years of the sale closing, which should happen in the second half of this year.
Just before midnight of Tuesday last week, Millipore said that its board of directors were “evaluating strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including by pursuing a process with potential bidders to explore a possible merger or sale of the company.” That announcement followed two days of speculation over a potential sale of the Billerica-based Millipore to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. of Waltham.
Millipore brought in sales of $1.7 billion in 2009, officials said, and has about 6,000 employees in more than 30 countries.
During negotiations Goldman Sachs & Co. acted as financial advisor to Millipore, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and Ropes & Gray LLP were Millipore’s legal advisors.
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