Date: 2012-05-17
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Dako (Denmark)
Acquiring company: Agilent Technologies (USA)
Amount: $2.2 billion (€1.72 billion)
Terms: * On June 21, 2012, Agilent Technologies has announced that its acquisition of cancer diagnostics company Dako has been completed. Agilent, which paid $2.2 billion in cash for Dako (on a debt-free basis), expects the acquisition to help strengthen Agilent’s position in life sciences, with a focus on product development to help in the fight against cancer. In conjunction with the acquisition, Agilent has formed a fourth business reporting segment, the Diagnostics and Genomics Group. The new organization is composed of Dako, led by Lars Holmkvist, and the Genomics Solutions Division, led by Bob Schueren, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s genomics group.
* On May 17, 2012, Agilent Technologies and EQT, the Sweden-based private equity group, have announced the execution of a definitive agreement for Agilent to acquire Dako, the Denmark-based cancer diagnostic company. The $2.2 billion acquisition (on a debt-free basis) is the largest in Agilent's history. The acquisition is expected to close within the next 60 days, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Details: This acquisition will strategically complement Agilent’s research technologies and will strenghten Agilent’s presence in life science and accelerate its growth in rapidly expanding segments of diagnostic markets. Its bio-analytical measurement business provides application-focused solutions that include instruments, software, consumables and services that enable customers to identify, quantify and analyze the physical and biological properties of substances and products.
Dako provides antibodies, reagents, scientific instruments and software primarily to customers in pathology laboratories to raise the standards for fast and accurate diagnostic answers for cancer patients. Dako also collaborates with a number of major pharmaceutical companies to develop new potential pharmacodiagnostics, also called companion diagnostics, which may be used to identify patients most likely to benefit from a specific targeted therapy. The company has recently concluded several major agreements to develop pharmacodiagnostic tests intended to identify patients more likely to benefit from treatment with investigational drug candidates under development by Amgen (one is targeting a rare deadly cancer and the other one targets an undisclosed cancer),BMS and Genentech. Dako's products are sold in more than 100 countries, and in 2010 its annual revenue was approximately $340 million. The company employs more than 1,000 people, primarily in Denmark, in Carpinteria, Calif., and other parts of the world.
Related: diagnostics
companion diagnostics
