December 22, 2009

Danaher Offers to Buy Genetix for $102M and Announces for NIH Director to Join Board of Directors

BY Dr. Keith J. Kaplan

This will likely be my last post for 2009 with holiday break upon us.  My sincere thanks to all my readers and followers for your comments, criticisms, thoughts and feedback. I remain open to your suggestions on ways to strengthen the dialogue and information sharing in the spirit of Pathology 2.0.

Happy holidays and best wishes for the new year!

Potentially interesting news for SlidePath which is owned by Genetix with Danaher offer to buy Genetix.  Danaher owns Leica Microsystems.  Might make for some nice synergy between a scanning platform and image analysis.  Danaher also recently announced Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. to Join Leica Microsystems’ Parent Company Board of Directors

I am sure we will see more on this to come.

Danaher has offered to buy imaging company Genetix Group for around ₤63.4 million ($102 million), or 85 pence per share, according to a news release posted on Genetix's website today.

Located in New Milton, UK, Genetix provides imaging and image analysis solutions for use in development of clinical diagnostics, biotherapeutics, pharmaceuticals, and in mainstream research applications. Genetix earned around ₤26 million in revenue in 2008.

The board of directors and shareholders of Genetix representing 77 percent of the firm's issued share capital have agreed to accept the offer. The deal will become firm when holders of 90 percent of Genetix shares give it the nod. Danaher said it expects to complete the acquisition during the first quarter of 2010.

The deal would give Genetix shareholders a 35 percent premium to the closing share price on Dec. 17, and a 56 percent premium to the average closing price of the stock over the past 12 months.

Danaher Executive VP Thomas Joyce said in a statement that the combination of Genetix's imaging and analysis with instrumentation from Leica Microsystems, which Danaher owns, "creates an attractive product offering serving both the clinical and research markets. In addition, we believe that we can strengthen Genetix's business by applying the Danaher Business System as well as by providing Genetix with access to additional capital to continue to accelerate its growth."

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