Merck Trumps Thermo Fisher with $7.2 Billion Buyout of Millipore

SUGAR LAND--March 2, 2010--Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--German drugmaker Merck KGaA (ETR:MRK) has entered into a $7.2 billion agreement to purchase Millipore (NYSE:MIL), a biotech laboratory equipment and materials company based in Billerica, Massachusetts. While not on the same scale of Merck's $41 billion acquisition of Schering-Plough in 2009, the deal nevertheless topped rival bidder Thermo Fisher Scientific's (NYSE:TMO) (Waltham, Massachusetts) offer of roughly $6 billion cash for Millipore, excluding debt.