Axinn Obtains Global Antitrust Clearance for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s $13.6 billion Acquisition

Axinn was global coordinating antitrust counsel to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (“Thermo Fisher”) in its $13.6 billion acquisition of Life Technologies Corporation.    

Axinn worked with Slaughter & May to help Thermo Fisher secure global clearance across nine different jurisdictions (Federal Trade Commission, European Commission, PRC’s MOFCOM, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Australia and New Zealand).

The Axinn and Slaughter & May teams successfully navigated nine regulatory reviews of more than fifty (50) different product areas involving complex life science products, which included a Second Request from the Federal Trade Commission and a Phase II investigation from MOFCOM.  Axinn and Slaughter & May secured global convergence on remedies through a single US$1 billion divestiture to General Electric Company (as an upfront buyer), tailored to cover only three product areas, and local supply and pricing remedies in China for two additional product areas.

The Axinn team included partners John Harkrider, Michael Keeley, Mark Alexander and Daniel Bitton; counsel Morris Bloom; and associate Daniel Oakes.