Whatman is now part of GE Healthcare, creating a centre of excellence in separation technology.
1月份曾传言有4路买家竞相出价收购过滤、分离技术专家——英国沃特曼公司（Whatman plc），就在此传闻抬升Whatman的疲弱股价之后，隶属于通用电气公司（General Electric Co）、并专注于生命科学和医疗业务的通用电气医疗集团（GE Healthcare Ltd）脱颖而出，酝酿收购Whatman，其出价大约为3.63亿英镑（7.18亿美元，其汇率0.51英镑= 1美元），折合每股2.70英镑。双方谈妥的价格低于去年春天高峰期的估价，当时股价的记录仅仅低于每股3.00英镑，但是却比去年的12月份低1.74英镑的高额股票溢价。

此次收购将遵循英国法律的“协议计划”，所有Whatman公司董事已批准将公司其股份出售给GE Healthcare，包括其最大股东——英国伦敦的赫米斯焦点资产管理公司（Hermes Focus Asset Management Ltd）。Whatman主席Michael Harper先生评论说，在过去几个月里，公司一直在与潜在的收购者进行商谈。表示有收购意向的其他公司有：丹纳赫集团（Danaher）、密理博公司（Millipore）与派克汉尼汾公司（Parker Hanifin）。

GE Healthcare生命科学部总裁Peter Ehrenheim先生表示：这两家公司结合“非常适合”， 带来的新技术将有力地帮助研究人员进一步理解基因和蛋白质在人类疾病中扮演的角色。Enrenheim先生进一步谈道：Whatman的“过滤组合”极大地拓展了GE Healthcare以前没有涉及到的基于实验室耗材配件的市场领域。“不过，对我们来说特别感兴趣的是基于滤纸的技术，如DNA交换、储存技术产品——FTA卡，这可能成为个人医疗领域的一种重要方法”，他补充说道。

GE Healthcare在生命科学技术、特别是在蛋白质科学以及在生物制药制造业市场地位方面的优势，结合拥有270年悠久历史的Whatman的精湛过滤技术，将有利于客户在生物医学和药物发现的研究；Enrenheim先生进一步表示，GE Healthcare与Whatman的结合，没有大的产品和市场的重叠。Whatman公司的首席执行官Kieran Murphy先生补充说道：“Whatman在制药、诊断市场和法医学领域上所具有的产品机会，将在GE Healthcare这种大环境中会有更大的成功机会。”

尽管Whatman被描述是一个“成功的、有利润的企业”，上任近一年的Murphy先生于2007年9月宣布了一项战略性调整计划，包括公司运营绩效管理、客户服务和供应链方面的广泛改变。Murphy先生说：这些改变，将包括一些制造业务部分的重组。Ehrenheim先生解释说：“我们已经进入了拍卖程序，并为以这项战略计划为基础的交易付出了代价，针对象Whatman这样相对较小的公司来说，贯彻执行这样的战略调整也将有相当的风险。”

Whatman公司将成为GE Healthcare 生命科学部门下属的一个独立部门，同时前Whatman公司的首席执行官 Murphy先生将继续留任。

GE Healthcare announces the acquisition of Whatman - sample preparation and filtration technologies experts. Whatman’s product offerings are highly complementary with GE Healthcare’s own Life Sciences business; combining the skills and knowledge of the two businesses will create significant added value for customers. GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business is a world-class provider of technologies for cellular and protein science research, and is a key area of growth. Expanding our skill base and product offerings in this area supports the Early Health vision of aiding earlier diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Whatman has key enabling technologies used in the understanding of gene and protein functions, with a reputation, based on a solid foundation of expertise, that will prove a great fit for GE Life Sciences business, as it brings new technologies fundamental to helping researchers increase their understanding of the role of genes and proteins in disease. Combining the skills of the two companies will enable GE Healthcare to create strong added value for customers in biomedical and drug discovery research.
 

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare’s broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new “early health” model of care, focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a US$17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com
 

About Whatman

A global leader in filtration technology, Whatman provides innovative life science products to the scientific community. Whatman has developed total sample preparation solutions through its robust line of filtration devices and membranes. The company’s breakthrough protein array technology and FTA® technology to capture, archive and purify DNA at room temperature enables it to provide novel solutions for the analytical, healthcare and bioscience markets. For more information please visit www.whatman.com