The talks to acquire Vision Systems (VSL) come after rival bidder Cytyc proposed an offer of $692 million. It has raised its bid to $3.25 a share, up from $2.35 previously in an attempt to prevent rival bidders making a better offer.
In August 2006, Ventana announced that it had entered into a merger implementation agreement with VSL and then went on to announce that it had acquired 12% of VSL's outstanding ordinary shares. Danaher has also previously announced that VSL has allowed it to conduct limited due diligence.
The companies said that there can be no assurance that Danaher and Ventana will reach an agreement with respect to a cooperative effort to acquire VSL, or that Danaher will make an offer of any nature for VSL.
Both Cytyc and Ventana have large stakes in the Australian company that will prevent any competitor making an offer of full acquisition.
VSL is a publicly-traded company that designs, manufactures and sells instruments and reagents for the anatomical pathology market.