Merck KGaA to buy Bio-Techne in $11.3 billion deal

Merck KGaA agreed to buy Bio-Techne Corp for $73 a share in cash, valuing the Minneapolis-based biotech supplier at about $11.3 billion and setting up one of the year’s biggest life-sciences deals.

The premium, about 36% to Bio-Techne’s one-month volume-weighted average share price, helped drive an immediate market reaction. Bio-Techne shares rose 22% in premarket trading after the announcement, a sign that investors quickly priced in both the cash offer and the strategic value of the target’s platform.

For Merck, based in Darmstadt, Germany, the acquisition adds more than revenue. Bio-Techne develops, manufactures and sells life science reagents, instruments and services for research and clinical diagnostic markets worldwide, the kind of product stack that has become increasingly important as drug discovery, diagnostics and cell-based research expand. In practical terms, Merck is buying deeper exposure to the tools and inputs that sit behind modern medicine, not just a bigger sales line.

That matters because the life-sciences market has become a battleground for scale and customer reach. Merck’s Life Science business already serves academic, research and diagnostic labs, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and industrial customers. In fiscal 2025, that division delivered 4.0% organic sales growth, while Process Solutions, one of its key units, grew about 10.7% organically. Merck reported group net sales of €21.1 billion for 2025, underscoring the size of the balance sheet behind the bid.

The company has also been telling investors that it sees enough momentum to keep spending. On March 5, 2026, Merck said it expected 2026 net sales of €20.0 billion to €21.1 billion and EBITDA pre of €5.5 billion to €6.0 billion, even as foreign-exchange headwinds weigh on the outlook. That gives the German group room to make a cross-border move that looks less like a distressed rescue and more like a deliberate portfolio shift.

Bio-Techne’s own numbers reinforce that reading. Its fiscal 2025 filing said organic revenue increased 5%, and it employed about 3,100 full-time and part-time workers as of June 30, 2025. That combination of growth, specialization and scale makes the company attractive to a buyer that wants a broader toolkit and a closer relationship with customers who increasingly prefer integrated solutions.

The deal fits a wider pattern across healthcare and science, where established companies are trying to own more of the research and supply chain behind drug development. In a tougher funding and regulatory climate, scale, technology platforms and control over high-margin tools are drawing the most aggressive capital.