Beckman Coulter Up for Sale: Report

Beckman Coulter is reportedly fielding acquisition offers.
By Michael Baron ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) --

Beckman Coulter

(BEC)

has reportedly decided to put itself on the auction block after receiving a number of indications of interest.

Multiple media outlets were saying late Thursday that the Brea, Calif.-based maker of biomedical testing equipment plans to test the market in the wake of recent overtures from both private equity firms and rival companies.

A

New York Times

report said the company has hired

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

to serve as its strategic advisor in the process. The

Wall Street Journal

, citing people familiar with the matter, estimated Beckman Coulter could fetch as much as $5 billion in a sale, and also said Goldman was running the sale, which began a few weeks ago and is expected to take at least a few weeks more. The company's current market capitalization is just under $4 billion

Shares of Beckman Coulter finished on Thursday at $57.09, down 34 cents. Year-to-date, the stock is down about 12.2%, but it's seen a healthy bounce since dipping to a 52-week low of $44.40 on Aug. 4.

At current levels, the forward price-to-earnings multiple on the stock, based on the consensus view for fiscal 2011, is 14X. The average estimate of analysts polled by

Thomson Reuters

is for the company to post a profit of $1.23 a share for the December-ending quarter on revenue of $995.3 million.

--

Written by Michael Baron in New York.

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