Merck KGaA to Pay $11.3 Billion for Bio-Techne in Life Sciences Tools Bet (opens in new tab)

Germany's Merck KGaA agreed to pay $73 a share in cash for Bio-Techne Corp. TECH, a 36% premium valuing the Minneapolis life sciences tools group at $11.3 billion. The acquisition, the company's biggest since Sigma-Aldrich, gives Merck KGaA a catalog of 425,000 antibodies and emerging spatial biology platforms at the center of drug discovery.