Coronavirus Tester Gets $10 Billion of Good News
Qiagen has extracted a decent price from Thermo Fisher. Things looked very different when its stock crashed last year.
A testing time.
Photo: BloombergFor a company that develops coronavirus tests, it can’t be much of a surprise that somebody wants to buy the entire business. European diagnostics group Qiagen NV on Tuesday accepted a 9 billion-euro ($10 billion) takeover offer from a larger U.S. peer, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. The timing makes sense for both sides, but the seller looks to be on the better side of the deal.
Qiagen extracts DNA and proteins from biological samples and makes them ready for analysis. The coronavirus, and bid speculation, has made it a favored stock lately. Last year was different. The shares plunged after an October profit warning and news that the chief executive officer was stepping down. An initial approach from Thermo Fisher sent them higher in November, but those talks failed and the stock crashed just before the end of the year.