Thermo Fisher & Qiagen: Where Covid-19 had devastating impacts on many of the gigantic industries, it had also benefitted some of the lucky ones. Qiagen is one of them.
Qiagen was on the verge of being acquired by Thermo Fisher in the last year. The lab equipment giant, Qiagen was not getting revenue targets. It said goodbye to its CEO. It was planning not to make its own hardware that would ease the tests designed for Illumina’s sequencing machines.
Many companies had been giving different compelling proposals to Qiagen. But the CEO and investors of Qiagen were coy about being acquired. Finally, in March 2020, Qiagen and Thermo Fisher had a deal for 11.5 billion dollars for a 23% premium share.
It took 6 months and one pandemic to get Qiagen back to its full strength. This is because the Covid-19 pandemic has a rare positive effect on the economy of the company. The reagents used for Covid-19 testing were sold by Qiagen.
Hence, the Qiagen refused multiple takeover offers stating it to be as “not compelling”. Media reports also showed that Thermo Fisher had been trying to takeover Qiagen shares for months. It also tried to justify the deal by increasing the 1b dollar after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thierry Bernard, Qiagen CEO, stated that the first half of the Covid-19 pandemic proved the critical importance of molecular testing and the reagents used during the lap protocols. This had definitely proved the real worth of the company as proved by the first of 2020. He added they were also looking forward to improving their business prospects in the coming year as well as 2022.
Davidson Kempner proved to be the second-largest investor for the company. They offered $13.4 billion but had not gotten the final deal though. Now, Qiagen is on its way to conquer the world of molecular testing.
