Scientific instruments company Thermo Electron Corp. obtained conditional EU permission on 9 November 2006 to buy fellow US medical device maker Fisher Scientific International Inc. for USD 10.6 billi…
Scientific instruments company Thermo Electron Corp. obtained conditional EU permission on 9 November 2006 to buy fellow US medical device maker Fisher Scientific International Inc. for USD 10.6 billion. “The (European) Commission“s clearance is conditional upon the divestiture of Genevac, Fisher“s subsidiary active in the production and sale of centrifugal evaporators”, the European Union“s executive body said in a statement. The Commission said that, given the commitment, “the Commission has concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it”. The deal is aimed at reducing costs and expanding Thermo“s product portfolio into life sciences, the company said. The deal is the latest merger in the consolidating medical devices industry, where companies have linked to add new products, gain wider distribution with new customers, and win discounts from suppliers. The companies said when the deal was announced that they would cut duplicated manufacturing, administrative and purchasing costs, as well as sell a broader range of products, from glass beakers to laboratory countertops to ingredients for drug-screening tests. Fisher is one of the world“s largest wholesale distributors of scientific equipment and instruments, selling more than 600,000 products. Thermo makes electronic measurement equipment, laboratory gear and other scientific instruments such as chromatographs, sample-preparation instruments and spectrometers. It also makes environmental monitoring equipment, explosive and radiation detectors.