Danaher Corp. made its first big deal since spinning off its industrial businesses in July to focus on science and technology, with the acquisition of medical diagnostics company Cepheid for $4 billion, including debt.
The offer, at $53 a share, is 54 percent higher than Cepheid’s closing price on Friday, the last day of trading since the U.S. Labor Day holiday. With the deal, Danaher Chief Executive Officer Thomas Joyce is gaining a maker of instruments that enable fast genetic testing for infectious diseases. The tools are crucial in containing the spread of highly problematic hospital-acquired bugs like MRSA and C. difficile, said Ross Muken, an analyst at Evercore ISI.
