On Friday, Merck agreed to buy Antelliq Group, a French supplier of animal identification, tracking and monitoring solutions, from BC Partners for around $3.7B.
Reuters reports that Merck will take on Antelliq’s $1.3B debt, which it plans to repay after the deal closes (expected in Q2 of 2019).
Antell me about Antelliq…
The company brought in over $406m in sales in the year ending Sept. 30.
Their bread and butter? Technology that helps veterinarians, farmers, and pet owners do things like manage livestock and predict health issues in critters before it’s too late.
According to Merck, Antelliq will be a separately owned and operated subsidiary within its animal health division, which raked in $3.8B in sales last year.
2018: the year of animal healthcare
This past year wasn’t just the year of the dog, but also of animals all across the estimated $26B animal health and $70B pet product industries.
This year, VCs threw $579m into pet tech startups as of November — including Pfizer’s former animal health business, Zoetis, which did $5.3B in revenue last year, and acquired fellow animal diagnostics company, Abaxis, in June.