Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific to Merge
The boards of directors at Thermo Electron Corporation and Fisher Scientific International have reached a definitive agreement to merge the two companies is a stock-for-stock exchange valued at $10.6 billion plus $2.2 billion in net debt. The new company will be named Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and is expected to reach more than $9 billion in revenue this year. In terms of top management at the new company, Marijn E. Dekkers, president and chief executive officer of Thermo, will become president and chief executive officer while Paul M. Meister, vice chairman of the board for Fisher, will become chairman of the board.
The company will be headquartered in Waltham, Mass. and count about 30,000 employees worldwide. $200 million in synergies are expected, starting with $75M this year. These synergies would materialize in a 75% cost cut and 25% revenue hike mix, though history has proved that big corporate mergers are hard to execute with expected synergies sometimes failing to materialize. Negotiators involved in the deals reportedly said that it was put together quickly within recent weeks. The impact on personnel and whether some positions would be eliminated has not been communicated as of yet.
Sources: press release, The Boston Globe.
May 8, 2006 Related topics: Mergers & Acquisitions