J&J accepts $4B Carlyle offer for diagnostics unit

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has accepted an offer of about $4 billion from the private equity firm The Carlyle Group to buy its Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics business.

J&J said Monday that the deal for the blood-testing unit should close by mid-year.

The New Brunswick, N.J., health care giant had said in January that Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group had offered $4.15 billion for the business, and that it would talk to works councils and trade unions representing its employees before making a decision.

The Ortho-Clinical business serves hospitals, testing laboratories and blood banks. It supplies equipment and chemicals to screen donated blood for HIV, hepatitis C and other serious diseases. It also makes technology for advanced testing of blood to diagnose health conditions and to monitor medication effects.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140331/DACSM6H81.html

[benld74]

1. I HOPE Carlyle loses their ass on this. Based upon the story below

http://www.wired.com/2014/02/elizabeth-holmes-theranos/


That was a decade ago. Holmes, now 30, dropped out of Stanford and founded a company called Theranos with her tuition money. Last fall it finally introduced its radical blood-testing service in a Walgreens pharmacy near company head­quarters in Palo Alto, California. (The plan is to roll out testing centers nation­wide.) Instead of vials of blood—one for every test needed—Theranos requires only a pinprick and a drop of blood. With that they can perform hundreds of tests, from standard cholesterol checks to sophisticated genetic analyses. The results are faster, more accurate, and far cheaper than conventional methods.

The implications are mind-blowing. With inexpensive and easy access to the infor­mation running through their veins, people will have an unprecedented window on their own health. And a new generation of diagnostic tests could allow them to head off serious afflictions from cancer to diabetes to heart disease.

[jmowreader]

2. Carlyle seems to have put their old practice of buying whole companies on hold

The last thing they bought before this was DuPont's "performance coating" (car paint) business, which is now called Axalta Coating Systems.

The obvious advantage is you need a shitload less money and incur far less risk to buy the part of the company you want than to buy the whole company and attempt to sell off the parts you don't like.