Shares of Beckman Coulter Inc., the Fullerton-based medical testing company, were up nearly 10% Wednesday on speculation of takeover talk.
The speculation was fueled by rival Dade Behring Holdings Inc. of Deerfield, Ill., saying that it accepted a $6.3 billion takeover bid from Germany’s Siemens AG.
The news about Dade sent Beckman, which is the only major standalone company in the $10 billion diagnostic testing sector, up 10% on Wednesday with a market value of $4.6 billion.
Analysts told Reuters that the 38% premium that Siemens is paying Dade over Tuesday’s closing price was causing investors to see Beckman as an acquisition target.
Beckman spokeswoman Mary Luthy declined comment, citing company policy.
Alex Morozov, a Morningstar analyst, told Reuters that Siemens’ bid for Dade wasn’t a surprise, and “soon there will be no pure plays left in diagnostics. Beckman Coulter is the last pure play in the diagnostic business.”
Beckman, whose chief executive, Scott Garrett, once held the same job at Dade, stepped away from a six-week bidding war for San Diego’s Biosite Inc. in May after Waltham, Mass.-based Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. came in with a higher offer and prevailed.
Dade evolved in the mid-1990s out of Baxter International Inc., the Chicago medical products maker.
