Danaher prepared to spend more than USD 8bn on acquisitions - CEO
Danaher (NYSE:DHR), an instrument and testing maker, plans to continue an aggressive acquisition program over the next year and has "north of USD 8bn in capacity" to do such deals, CEO Thomas Joyce said.
It was possible that the company could spend the USD 8bn on a large deal, Joyce said on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco, California on Tuesday. He declined to further comment on possible targets but mentioned that life sciences and diagnostics are key areas of interest.
"We are very biased towards continuing to put our balance sheet to work," Joyce told investors at the conference. "We don't view 2015 as a year of digestion. It's not a year we're taking a pause."
Joyce's comments come amid speculation that the aggressive acquirer could have its sights on Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A), a maker of life sciences instruments that has a market value of just over USD 13bn. One industry banker told this news service that a Danaher acquisition of Agilent "makes sense for a variety of reasons."
When asked about the possibility on Tuesday, Agilent President and Chief Operating Officer Michael McMullen declined to comment. "I don't comment on rumor or speculation. I don't write those things," he said.
McMullen said the key goal for Agilent in 2015 is to streamline operations and integrate recent acquisitions which include Dako, which it acquired for USD 2.2bn in 2012. In September, it spun off Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) into a separate company, allowing Agilent to focus on life sciences and diagnostics.
The industry banker said Agilent's Dako and Danaher's Leica division have "strategic similarities" which make them a good fit.
Danaher’s Joyce said in the investor presentation that the company announced or closed about USD 4bn worth of acquisitions in 2014, including Nobel Biocare, which it agreed to acquire for USD 2.17bn in September in a bid to expand in the dental implants market.