Thermo Fisher wins contest for Affymetrix

Abstract

After delaying a shareholder vote by one week so it could consider a $1.6 billion acquisition bid from former employees, the genetic analysis firm Affymetrix says an earlier $1.3 billion offer from Thermo Fisher Scientific is the better deal. Following the rejection, the former employees withdrew, allowing Thermo Fisher to get the nod to complete the purchase when Affymetrix shareholders met to vote on March 31. Even though the former employees’ higher bid was attractive, Affymetrix’s board says, the deal might never have been completed for a number of reasons, including dependence on financing from a private equity firm based in China, the need to obtain Chinese regulatory approvals for money transfers to pay for the deal, and likely difficulty in obtaining U.S. government approvals to complete the deal. Thermo Fisher’s offer “outweighs the putatively higher premium but significantly greater uncertainties associated with a potential transaction” with the former employees,