Abbott Lab to buy Alere for Whooping 4.48 billion dollars

Diversified healthcare company Abbott Laboratories has agreed to buy Alere Inc for about $4.48 billion, ending a prolonged legal battle over its plan to buy the diagnostic-testing company.

Abbott’s revised offer of $51 per share represents a premium of 20.5 percent to Alere’s closing price on Thursday, but is below the earlier $56-per-share offer announced in February last year.

Reuters’ calculation of the deal value is based on Alere’s 87.9 million diluted weighted-average common shares outstanding as of September 30, 2016. In April last year, Abbott had raised concerns about the accuracy of various representations, warranties and covenants made by Alere in the earlier merger agreement, and had offered to pay $30 million to $50 million to terminate the deal.

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Alere, which makes tests for infections such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and dengue, sued Abbott in August last year to force the company to move ahead with the deal.

In December, Abbott filed a suit to terminate its proposed acquisition of Alere, citing a “substantial loss” in the value of the diagnostics company since they struck a deal in February 2016. Abbott and Alere said on Friday that the companies had agreed to dismiss their respective lawsuits, and the deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2017.