Thermo Fisher Agrees to Buy One Lambda for $925 Million

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world’s second-largest maker of health-care equipment, agreed to acquire closely held One Lambda Inc. for about $925 million to expand in specialty diagnostics.

The cash deal will add 9 cents to 11 cents a share to 2013 adjusted earnings, Thermo Fisher said in a statement today. The company will issue $1.3 billion in debt to help fund the deal, as well as pay for a new $500 million share buyback program.

Thermo Fisher will acquire Canoga Park, California-based One Lambda’s technology for determining what human leukocyte antigens are present in tissues, a process needed for successful transplants and determining paternity. Thermo Fisher, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, beat out other bidders for the medical- testing company, said people familiar with the transaction who asked not to be identified as the process is private.

“We view this deal positively from both a strategic and financial perspective,” Ross Muken, an analyst at ISI Group LLC in New York, said in an e-mail. The acquisition’s price is “reasonable,” he wrote.

JP Morgan Securities LLC is acting as financial adviser to Thermo Fisher, and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP is serving as legal counsel. Perella Weinberg Partners is acting as financial adviser to One Lambda, and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP is serving as legal counsel.

Thermo Fisher fell less than 1 percent to $51.90 at the close in New York.

Seventh Acquisition

The acquisition is the seventh announced by Thermo Fisher since May 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company, which has spent at least $6.8 billion on 27 takeovers in the past five years, will keep seeking purchases as laboratory budgets rise, Chief Executive Officer Marc Casper said.

Thermo Fisher and One Lambda had been in talks since 2008.

“It’s been a continual dialogue over the years,” Casper said today in an interview. After Thermo Fisher moved to buy the company, One Lambda checked with other potential buyers before coming back to Thermo Fisher. “Working that relationship for four or five years helps you,” he said.

One Lambda also makes medical-diagnostic products, laboratory instruments and computer software used in testing procedures and evaluations, according to its website and a recent press release. Thermo Fisher plans to sell One Lambda’s products in emerging markets where transplants are more common, as well as with its U.S. and European customers, Casper said.

Thermo Fisher boosted first-quarter adjusted profit by 19 percent as sales climbed to $3.1 billion. The company in April raised its revenue and adjusted earnings per share forecasts for 2012, citing foreign-exchange rates.

The company’s two largest deals in the past five years were the $3.5 billion acquisition of Phadia AB, announced in May 2011, and the $2.1 billion purchase of Dionex Corp. announced in December 2010, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeffrey McCracken in New York at jmccracken3@bloomberg.net; Drew Armstrong in New York at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeffrey McCracken at jmccracken3@bloomberg.net

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Thermo Fisher Said Near Deal to Buy One Lambda for $1 Billion

Matt Stroshane/Bloomberg

A Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. mass spectrometer sits on display at the company's booth during the Pittcon 2010 Exposition in Orlando, Florida.

A Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. mass spectrometer sits on display at the company's booth during the Pittcon 2010 Exposition in Orlando, Florida. Photographer: Matt Stroshane/Bloomberg