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.
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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.
