Bio-Rad Laboratories has made a proposal to BioSource International to acquire all of its outstanding shares for US$8.50 per share in cash
Bio Rad already owns close to 5% of the outstanding shares of BioSource.
Norman Schwartz, Bio-Rad's president and chief executive officer, noted that "Our offer represents a 21% premium to BioSource's closing price on 5 April 2005 and a 30% premium to its three-year average closing price".
"We believe this provides an attractive premium and enhanced liquidity for BioSource shareholders." BioSource was valued at approximately $68 million, while this proposal values BioSource at over $82 million.
Bio Rad made its proposal in the form of a letter to the BioSource board.
In the letter, Bio-Rad stated that it has made repeated attempts over the last two years, including most recently this past Monday, to persuade the BioSource board to enter into negotiations regarding a merger and that each of these attempts was rebuffed by the BioSource board of directors.
Brad Crutchfield, Bio Rad's vice president of life sciences, said "The synergies offered by the combination of the product lines and research capabilities of Bio-Rad and BioSource make this an attractive match and will enable us to add value to the BioSource business.
"We anticipate retaining the vast majority of BioSource's current employees," Crutchfield added.
"BioSource would operate as a 'center of excellence' within our company, an approach we've successfully applied to allow acquired companies to continue focusing on their core mission while drawing on Bio Rad's resources." "In short," Schwartz said.
"This combination will be good for the customers, employees and shareholders of both companies." In recent years Bio Rad has integrated several acquisitions in the areas of blood virus, food safety, process chromatography and gene expression.
