Bruker Corp. (NSDQ:BRKR) agreed to pay $229 million for Veeco Instruments Inc.’s (NSDQ:VECO) metrology business.
Plainville, N.Y.-based Veeco said its metrology business, which makes atomic force microscopes and optical measuring equipment, will be rolled into Billerica, Mass.-based Bruker’s nano instruments business.
The deal, expected to close during the fourth quarter, involves Veeco’s Santa Barbara, Calif.-based AMF operation and its Tucson-based metrology business. Metrology is the science of measurement. Bruker said the deal also includes Veeco’s associated global field sales and support organizations, which will be integrated into Bruker’s sales and support operation.
Bruker president and CEO Frank Laukien said the deal brings Veeco’s “industry-leading” scanning probe microscope and optical metrology systems into his company’s portfolio of materials research and nanotech instruments.
The new businesses are expected to add more than $130 million to Bruker’s top line next year, according to a press release, adding between 2 and 4 cents to its 2011 earnings per share. The operations will maintain their home bases in California and Arizona, according to the release, retaining “the vast majority” of the businesses’ personnel.