Merck Outbids Rivals in Millipore Takeover

Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany) has announced that it will buy Millipore Corp., a U.S. supplier of equipment to biotech companies, for US$7.2 billion in a deal that will be completed in 2010. This announcement came swiftly after a report that Thermo Fisher Scientific had offered $6 billion for the biotech company.

Millipore (Billerica, MA, USA) manufactures water purification and filtration products. It supplies clinical and research labs, pharmaceutical companies, contract drug manufacturers, and biotech firms.

The acquisition of Millipore by Merck is an example of the trend among pharmaceutical companies to overcome the growing financial risk in drug development and sales. It continues a global consolidation tendency among clinical laboratory suppliers and in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers that has been taking place for more than 15 years.

Many pharmaceutical companies have divested their interest in chemicals, however, Merck is using Millipore to expand its existing activity.

Karl-Ludwig Klee, CEO of Merck stressed that the company's rationale is governed by the investment philosophy of its controlling family shareholders, who between them retain about 70% of the equity. He claimed that there is business logic apart from simply diversification. "People think chemicals means PVC, but these are not commodity businesses," he said, citing Merck's influential and high-margin liquid crystal displays. "And [the pharmaceutics sector] does not always have high margins.”

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