Abbott Laboratories (ABT) on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire Exact Sciences (EXAS) in a transaction worth an enterprise value of about $23 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Exact Sciences shareholders will receive $105 per share.
Exact Sciences' portfolio includes Cologuard, a noninvasive colorectal cancer screening test; Oncotype DX, used to guide personalized breast cancer treatment decisions; Oncodetect, which identifies molecular residual disease to assess recurrence risk; and Cancerguard, a multi-cancer early detection blood test.
Abbott said the acquisition will be immediately accretive to its revenue growth and gross margin. Exact Sciences is expected to generate more than $3 billion in revenue this year, growing at a high-teens organic rate. Once the deal closes—anticipated in the second quarter of 2026—Exact Sciences will operate as a subsidiary of Abbott, boosting Abbott's total diagnostics revenue to more than $12 billion annually.
The acquisition adds a new growth vertical to Abbott's already high single-digit growth profile, gaining leadership in the fast-growing $60 billion U.S. cancer screening and precision oncology diagnostics segments, the company said in a statement.
Exact Sciences shares rose more than 17% in pre-market trading, following a 23.68% gain on Wednesday that closed the stock at $86.18, while Abbott stock declined 0.36% in pre-market trading, after closing down 2.96% at $126.15 on Wednesday.
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