EQT and KKR are reportedly advancing talks to buy the roughly $8.8 billion diagnostics company. Qiagen just installed a CEO whose defining recent credential is running the sale process at his last company.
Qiagen named Jonathan M. Pratt chief executive effective September 1, succeeding Thierry Bernard. Pratt brings more than 25 years of leadership experience, most recently as chief executive of Filtration Group, where he led a $9.25 billion cash sale to Parker Hannifin. He previously held roles at Waters, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and Pall. Qiagen reaffirmed its third-quarter and full-year 2026 guidance in the announcement and said its strategic review continues, without naming a buyer or a price.
That strategic review has names attached. EQT and KKR are advancing talks to acquire Qiagen as the CEO transition proceeds, according to people familiar with the matter. Two buyers are reportedly conducting formal due diligence. Advent International was named among circling parties in earlier reporting; the most recent reporting on advancing talks names only EQT and KKR.
No price has been disclosed. Speculation has put a potential bid at $50 a share or more, though that figure has not been confirmed by any party involved. Qiagen closed at $42.57 on August 25, a market capitalization of roughly $8.8 billion. A $50 bid, if it materialized, would represent a premium of roughly 17% to that close.
The timing of the leadership change is not speculative. A company reportedly running a live, multi-sponsor sale process installed, as its incoming chief executive, a leader whose most recent achievement was overseeing exactly this kind of transaction at his previous company. Qiagen has not said that is why Pratt was chosen. But advancing talks with two of the largest buyout firms in the world, paired with a CEO transition to someone who has already run a comparable sale to completion, reads as a company managing a live process with unusual deliberateness, independent of whatever price eventually emerges.
No agreement has been signed, and talks described as advancing have collapsed before in other processes. The next confirming fact will be a disclosed price, a signed agreement or a public withdrawal, not another leadership announcement.