Kirkland, Skadden, DLA All Work $1.1 Billion Danaher Deal

Danaher Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based manufacturing conglomerate, has reached an agreement to purchase pieces of MDS Inc., a pharmaceutical research firm, and Life Technologies, a biotech firm.

Danaher is paying $1.1 billion for a bioresearch and analytical instrumentation company owned by MDS, and for Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex, a joint venture between MDS and Life Technologies, which builds mass spectrometers.

Danaher manufactures and sells everything from dental x-ray machines to the line of Craftsman tools sold at Sears. The company said in a statement that it expects the acquisitions to fuel growth in its medical technologies unit. With the purchases, the division’s revenue will grow by $650 million. The added businesses will have no impact on Danaher's restructuring plans--the company last week announced that it will be cutting 3,300 jobs.

As a "carve out" transaction (in which sections of a company are purchased, rather than the whole), the deal was more time intensive, says Marie Gibson, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The firm represented MDS on the deal.

"When you’re carving out a piece of a business, it's certainly more complicated," says Gibson. "You need to make sure that everyone gets what they need."

Skadden partner Chris Morgan, based in Toronto, also worked on the deal with Gibson.

Danaher turned to Kirkland & Ellis and partners Dan Wolf and Claire Sheng to handle the purchases. Wolf declined to comment on the record, other than to confirm Kirkland & Ellis's role on the matter.

DLA Piper represented Life Technologies. Calls made to firm spokespersons were not returned by the time of this post.

The purchase agreement now awaits regulatory and shareholder approval. The deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter.

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE SEPTEMBER 2, 2009 EDITION OF THE AM LAW DAILY © 2009 INCISIVE MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FURTHER DUPLICATION WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED