Danaher To Buy Diagnostics Maker Cepheid For About $4 Billion

Danaher Corp. said Monday it has agreed to acquire diagnostics company Cepheid for $53 a share in cash or about $4 billion. Danaher said it expects to finance the deal with cash and debt. Cepheid had revenue of $539 million in 2015 and expects to generate $618 to $635 million in revenue in 2016. The deal is expected to close by year-end. Danaher is expecting the deal to be moderately dilutive to GAAP EPS, but to add about 5 cents per share to adjusted EPS in the first full year after acquisition. Cepheid shares closed at $34.42 on Friday, and were trading up about 52% in premarket trade Monday.