Recent Developments
Agreement and Plan of Merger
On July 7, 2022, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (as it may be amended, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the “Merger Agreement”) with SD Biosensor, Inc., a corporation with limited liability organized under the laws of the Republic of Korea (“SDB”), Columbus Holding Company, a Delaware corporation (“Parent”), and Madeira Acquisition Corp., an Ohio corporation and a direct wholly owned subsidiary of Parent (“Merger Sub,” and together with SDB and Parent, the “Parent Parties”). Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, Merger Sub merged with and into Meridian (the “Merger”), with Meridian surviving the Merger as a direct wholly owned subsidiary of Parent.
On December 9, 2022, Meridian and the Parent Parties entered into a Letter Agreement (the “Letter Agreement”), modifying the Merger Agreement, such that all of the conditions to the Parent Parties’ obligation to complete the Merger have been satisfied (and are deemed to remain satisfied through the completion of the Merger), provided that Meridian is required to comply with certain covenants in the Merger Agreement through the completion of the Merger. Under the Letter Agreement, Meridian and the Parent Parties also agreed to, among other things, consummate the Merger on January 31, 2023.
On January 31, 2023, the Merger was consummated in accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement and the Letter Agreement, and Parent, which at the time of Closing was wholly-owned and controlled by SDB, became the sole shareholder of Meridian. Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement, at the effective time of the Merger, each issued and outstanding share of Meridian’s common stock (subject to certain exceptions set forth in the Merger Agreement) was canceled and converted into the right to receive $34.00 in cash, without interest (the “Merger Consideration”). See Note 18, “Subsequent Events” of the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements regarding consummation of the Merger.
The foregoing description of the Merger, the Merger Agreement, and the Letter Agreement does not purport to be complete and is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, the full text of (i) the Merger Agreement, a copy of which was filed by Meridian as Exhibit 2.1 to Meridian’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on July 7, 2022 and is incorporated herein by reference, and (ii) the Letter Agreement, a copy of which was filed by Meridian as Exhibit 2.1 to Meridian’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on December 12, 2022 and is incorporated herein by reference.
The Company incurred transaction related costs of approximately $1,160 during the three months ended December 31, 2022 related to the Merger, which is recorded in acquisition and transaction related costs in the Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations.
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic
Starting in the latter half of fiscal 2020 and continuing to the date of this filing, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had both positive and negative effects on our business.
Our Life Science segment’s products were well positioned to respond to in vitro device (“IVD”) manufacturers’ increased demand for reagents used in the manufacture of molecular, rapid antigen and serology tests. Consequently, through the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2022, our Life Science segment consistently delivered significantly higher levels of net revenues and operating income than those achieved prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the peak to date in such levels occurring during the second quarter of fiscal 2022. This revenue peak has been followed by a significant decrease in such net revenue levels since the second quarter of fiscal 2022, reflecting the softening in demand for COVID-19 related reagents.
Our Diagnostics segment, on the other hand, has generally been negatively impacted by health systems’ increased focus on COVID-19 testing over traditional infectious disease testing. Revenues from our respiratory illness assays were most dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are continuing to experience what we believe to be a continuation of a return to pre-pandemic activity levels.
There continues to be many uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and we can provide no assurances with respect to our views of the longevity or severity of the positive or negative impacts to our consolidated financial condition of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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