The closure comes seven months after Waters announced its acquisition plans in July.
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Waters Corp., a Milford-based life sciences manufacturer, has completed its acquisition of the biosciences and diagnostic solutions businesses of New Jersey-based medtech company Becton, Dickinson and Co., in a transaction valued at $18.8 billion.
The closure comes seven months after Waters announced its acquisition plans in July.
"As we enter this next chapter, our focus is clear: address our customers' unmet needs, deliver long-term value for our shareholders, and provide solutions that advance global health. Through our category-defining products and shared culture of innovation, I am confident that together we will accelerate the benefits of pioneering science,” Waters President and CEO Udit Batra said in a Monday press release.
With the acquisition, Waters has created four divisions to develop and manufacture large and small molecule therapeutics and food and environmental testing and expand specialty diagnostics, according to the Waters release. The transaction’s value was announced in a separate Monday press release from BD.
Combining both Waters and BD divisions, the company’s new branches are named: Waters Analytical Sciences, Waters Biosciences, Waters Advanced Diagnostics, and Waters Materials Sciences.
In addition to the acquisition, Waters’ has appointed Claire Fraser to its board of directors, bringing the board’s membership to 11. A genome scientist, Fraser has stepped down from BD's board of directors following a 20-year tenure.
"Dr. Fraser is an internationally recognized scientist with an extensive background in genomics, infectious diseases, and molecular diagnostics. We will benefit from her expertise and deep knowledge of the business to help oversee our next era of growth and value creation,” Dr. Flemming Ørnskov, Waters’ chairman, said in the company’s release.
Waters used Barclays, based in London, as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP, with a location in Boston, as its lead legal counsel. BD used Citi as lead financial advisor and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as lead legal counsel, both out of New York City.
Founded in 1958, Waters is the third-largest life sciences company in Central Massachusetts and the fifth-largest manufacturer in the region, according to data collected by WBJ’s Research Department.
Employing 1,450 in Central Massachusetts, Waters produces analytics instruments and software for disease detection, environmental safety testing, and the production of new medicines.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare, manufacturing, and higher education industries.
