PerkinElmer to buy Caliper for $600m

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

PerkinElmer Inc., a Waltham health and industrial sciences company, has agreed to buy Caliper Life Sciences Inc. of Hopkinton in a deal with a total net purchase price of about $600 million in cash.

PerkinElmer has been on a bit of an acquisition spree --- this is its seventh deal so far this year.

Robert F. Friel. Photo courtesy of PerkinElmer.

Caliper Life Sciences is focused on imaging and detection services for life sciences research, diagnostics, and environmental markets. The acquisition complements PerkinElmer’s existing line-up of offerings in life science, diagnostics, environmental and food markets.

“The acquisition of Caliper Life Sciences brings innovative molecular imaging and detection technologies to our portfolio,” Robert F. Friel, PerkinElmer’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

At $10.50 a share, the total purchase price represents a premium of 42 percent for Caliper Life Sciences shareholders, relative to the closing price of $7.39 yesterday, PerkinElmer said in a press release.

Kevin Hrusovsky, chief executive of Caliper Life Sciences, is expected to join the PerkinElmer senior leadership team following the close of the transaction, PerkinElmer said.

The acquisition has received the unanimous support of the boards of directors of both companies, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter, the press release said. The transaction is expected to be dilutive to PerkinElmer’s 2012 GAAP earnings per share by about $0.05 and accretive to PerkinElmer’s 2012 First Call consensus adjusted earnings per share by about $0.08.

Deals that PerkinElmer has disclosed this year include one for Dexela Ltd., a British company that provides X-ray detection technologies and services. In March, PerkinElmer that it agreed to buy CambridgeSoft Corp. and that it had bought ArtusLabs. The cumulative purchase price for the companies, which provide software for the pharmaceutical industry, is about $220 million plus a potential $15 million more through a contingent consideration, PerkinElmer said at the time.