NEW YORK -- Emerson is going public with a $7.6 billion bid for National Instruments, saying the company has avoided serious buyout negotiations since early last year.
Emerson Electric Co. bumped up its cash offer for the maker of scientific measuring equipment and software to $53 per share in November, up from a per-share offer of $48 that it had made back in May.
Emerson said that it's tried numerous times to initiate private discussions with National Instruments Corp. since May. The St. Louis company said when it provided its increased bid in November, National Instruments said it had formed a group to look at the proposal and evaluate options. But Emerson said National Instruments since has resisted engaging.
Emerson, which makes process controls systems, valves and analytical instruments, said it met with National Instruments earlier this month, but National Instruments shared "limited, high-level" information about its business and was unwilling to provide more detailed information. Emerson said it was told by National Instruments that would be the extent of its engagement.
Last week National Instruments said it was conducting a strategic review and put in place a "poison pill," a financial maneuver companies use to curb unwelcome suitors.
The elements of each poison pill vary, but they're all designed to give corporate boards an option to flood the market with so much newly created stock that a takeover becomes prohibitively expensive.