German pharmaceutical and chemicals company Merck KGaA will buy US biotech equipment-maker Millipore for $7.2 billion.
German pharmaceutical and chemicals company Merck KGaA will buy US biotech equipment-maker Millipore for $7.2 billion. The merger marks Merck’s foray into bioresearch and equipment for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
Merck plans to retain Millipore’s senior management and also intends to maintain Millipore's headquarters in Billerica, MA, and combine it with Merck’s US chemicals headquarters.
After the acquisition, Merck will get about 35% of its revenue from chemicals, up from the current figure of 25%. The company expects that the acquisition will also generate an annual cost savings of about $100 million within three years of the deal, which it expects to close in the second half of 2010.
