I wonder what their fee was for putting together the deal.
"In a statement, the company confirmed it has hired New York investment banking firm Goldman Sachs & Co. as a financial adviser....
This was before the SEC got involved.
--more--"
"Millipore, based in Billerica, Mass., confirmed it hired Goldman Sachs Group to solicit bidders for a possible merger or sale....
In good hands, huh?
--more--"
Related: Search for bidders lifts Millipore shares
Goldman playing around again, huh?
"Millipore is sold on growth; Billerica firm’s boss says buyer wants expansion" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | March 2, 2010
The chief executive of Millipore Corp. yesterday said he expects the Billerica life sciences tools company to grow after being bought for $6 billion by German drug giant Merck KGaA, in a megadeal that could spur a new wave of acquisitions....
Millipore, which sells products such as lab filtration equipment to biotechs, pharmaceutical companies, and academic research labs, has more than 6,000 employees worldwide...
Millipore’s successful auction, which is thought to have drawn multiple bidders, reflects the growing health of the broader mergers and acquisitions market as the economy improves and strong companies seek to bolster their product lines, said Benjamin Howe, founding partner at the Boston investment bank America’s Growth Capital.
“We’re starting to see more deals with multiple bidders and more preemptive bids where people say they have to have this company and they’re willing to put some extra cash on the table,’’ Howe said.
Do you have any extra cash, American, because I do not.
--more--"
And they claim they are coming here, folks!
"Merck moving US base to Billerica; Millipore deal also expected to bring new jobs to state" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | March 4, 2010
The chairman of German drug and chemical giant Merck KGaA said yesterday that he plans to move the headquarters of the company’s US chemicals business, which sells lab materials, life sciences tools, and pigments, to Billerica from outside Philadelphia.
Well, I guess that is bad for Pennsylvania, huh?
That division will be named EMD Millipore once Merck has completed its $6 billion acquisition of Billerica life sciences toolmaker Millipore Corp. in the coming months, Merck chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley (pronounced kly) said during an interview at the Globe....
Merck spokesman Walter Huber confirmed that “global responsibility’’ for some overseas operations will be coming to Massachusetts, but did not say how many, if any, jobs might be created. Merck currently sells its own line of life sciences tools in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. With its agreement this week to purchase Millipore - in a deal stock analysts valued at $7.2 billion including the assumption of debt - Germany’s Merck will emerge as a significant employer in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The company, established in 1668, calls itself the world’s oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. It is not connected to US-based Merck & Co. and until recently has not been well-known in the United States.
In 2006, it paid $13 billion to buy Swiss-based drug maker Serono AG, which has its US headquarters in Rockland. Merck has since boosted Serono’s Massachusetts employment from 500 to 850 jobs and moved its US biopharmaceutical headquarters to Rockland, naming that division EMD Serono Inc. Merck has to do business in the United States under the name EMD - which stands for “Emanuel Merck, Darmstadt,’’ the initials of a company executive and the German city where it is based - because America’s Merck owns exclusive rights to the name here....
Kley said Merck is likely to transfer an unspecified number of jobs to Billerica from Gibbstown, N.J., outside Philadelphia. That site has about 300 employees. But he said it was also possible the company could consolidate some operations, and eliminate jobs....
So HOW MANY YOU WHACKING??!
Kley stopped short of predicting a large increase in Massachusetts jobs. But he said the agreement to buy Millipore was driven by Merck’s need to expand in the United States and North America.
“Our presence was not sufficient for the biggest and most important pharmaceutical and chemical market in the world,’’ the Merck chairman said. “Acquisitions are part of our growth strategy. And when we looked at the acquisition criteria, a strong footprint in the US was one of the key elements to go forward with an acquisition.’’
Initially, the US-based Merck was a subsidiary of the 350-year-old German company, started by a Merck family member who immigrated to the United States in the 1800s. But the US government took over the company after World War I and converted it into an independent American firm.
Oh, so the U.S. GOVERNMENT SEIZED the ASSETS of a SPY for GERMANY, huh?
It has since expanded into a global biopharmaceutical giant, dwarfing Germany’s Merck....
--more--"
