Merck's $17 billion acquisition of sigma Aldrich is blocked by the EU

Source: CPHI May 27, 2015 recently, Merck's US $17 billion acquisition of sigma Aldrich's instruments was blocked by the EU's anti-monopoly regulators Sigma Aldrich is the world's largest supplier of biochemical and organic chemical reagents, with global sales of US $2.7 billion in 2013 Merck expects the deal to achieve synergies of $334 million (about 260 million euros) a year Recently, the news that Danaher acquired Pall and then split it has been widely spread in the industry Now let's change our perspective and pay attention to the latest progress of Merck's US $17 billion acquisition of sigma Aldrich Although the acquisition has been approved by the U.S anti-monopoly regulators, the large-scale instrument acquisition has been hindered by the EU anti-monopoly regulators Merck group recently said that EU antitrust regulators have some concerns about the deal, but it still expects the deal to end in the middle of this year Marcus Kuhnert, Merck's chief financial officer, said on Tuesday in a conference call that Merck expects to address EU concerns and close the deal no later than June 30 Last September, Merck announced that it would spend $17 billion (10.41 billion pounds) in cash to acquire sigma Aldrich, the world's largest chemical reagent producer The biggest acquisition so far in the field of life science instruments aims to strengthen Merck millipore's experimental consumables business In 2007, Merck spent $13.3 billion to acquire the largest biotechnology company in Switzerland, Serono, and created a new giant in the European pharmaceutical industry, which was then positioned as a pharmaceutical giant However, in the next few years, Merck's new drug research and development has been repeatedly frustrated, and has not launched a heavy-duty product, and now it has been in trouble Then, in 2010, Merck spent $6 billion to acquire millipore, a US laboratory equipment and chemicals manufacturer, to accelerate the transformation of the company Sigma Aldrich is the world's largest supplier of biochemical and organic chemical reagents, with global sales of US $2.7 billion in 2013 Merck expects the deal to achieve synergies of $334 million (about 260 million euros) a year Merck is a family holding company, established in 1668 In 2013, the pharmaceutical business accounted for 58% of the total revenue and the chemical business accounted for 39% Little known is that Merck is the world's largest supplier of LCD materials for flat panel displays, providing 60% of the world's LCD materials After the acquisition of millipore, the laboratory equipment business has become a major pillar.