Merck KGaA agreed to buy Bio-Techne for roughly $11.3 billion, positioning the combined company to expand life-sciences tools, analytics, and workflow capabilities across discovery through manufacturing. Under the terms disclosed, Merck KGaA will pay $73 per share in cash, a premium of about 36% versus Bio-Techne’s one-month VWAP, and expects the deal to close by late 2026 or early 2027. Merck KGaA cited Bio-Techne’s multi-omics, automated protein analysis, and RNAscope in situ hybridization technologies, including integration of cell culture device manufacturer Wilson Wolf. The acquisition marks Merck KGaA’s largest deal since its 2015 Sigma-Aldrich purchase and extends consolidation in lab and translational tooling—a category central to cell therapy and diagnostics ecosystems.