Biomedical test products maker Beckman Coulter Inc. announced plans Feb. 27 to acquire Olympus Corp.'s life sciences' diagnostic systems unit for ¥77.45 billion ($800 million) to bolster its position in clinical chemistry. Fullerton, Calif.-based Beckman will finance the deal with $300 million in new common stock and $500 million in debt.

Tokyo-based Olympus used Stephen Chelberg of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP in Tokyo along with Nick Unkovic in Palo Alto, Calif., and Joachim Heine in Frankfurt. Chelberg has spent his career in Japan, after visiting as a teenager in 1972. The day after he graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, his professor, Whitmore Gray, called to ask Chelberg whether he wanted a job in Tokyo. He ended up at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, then moved to the Tokyo office of Graham & James LLP.

After stints heading the Japan operations of U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturer Watkins Johnson Co. and the Japanese subsidiary of Manugistics Inc., a U.S. software company, Chelberg returned to Graham & James, which combined with Squire Sanders in 2000.

For investment banking advice on the deal, Olympus tapped Ken Negishi and Ryuya Hishinumal of Credit Suisse Group.

Beckman Coulter used Jeff Hogan at Morgan Stanley and a Latham & Watkins LLP team led by Paul Tosetti. The firms advised the biomedical test products maker in its failed 2007 bid for Biosite Inc.