By Senad Karaahmetovic
Emerson Electric (NYSE:EMR) announced today it made an offer to buy National Instruments (NASDAQ:NATI) in a deal that values the business at $7.6 billion.
Emerson’s offer is based on $53 per share in cash, an improvement of about 10% to the initial $48 per share proposal submitted last May. The new offer represents a 32% premium to the closing share price as of January 12.
“Although Emerson would have preferred to reach an agreement privately, given NI’s announcement that it is undertaking a strategic review, and after refusing to work with us toward a premium cash transaction over the past eight months, we are making our interest public for the benefit of all NI shareholders,” CEO Lal Karsanbhai said in a press release.
Karsanbhai added that EMR is “disappointed” that NATI opted for a poison pill on January 13 rather than engaging in talks with the company about a potential deal. Emerson also said that NATI didn’t respond to its latest offer, which was sent on January 11.
"Acquiring NI is another step forward in Emerson's journey to develop a cohesive, higher growth and higher margin portfolio and build on its global automation focus. As Emerson outlined at our recent Investor Conference, we are transforming our portfolio toward higher-growth automation markets aligned with secular macro trends, which will deliver significant growth and profitability for years to come," Karsanbhai added.
Emerson shares are down 2% in pre-market Tuesday while NATI trades over 15% higher.