Deprecated brand name after acquisition and fusion of chemical companies
Merck Millipore was the brand used by Merck Group's (not US-based Merck & Co.) global life science business until 2015 when the company re-branded. It was formed when Merck acquired the Millipore Corporation in 2010. Merck is a supplier to the life science industry. The Millipore Corporation was founded in 1954, and listed among the S&P 500 since the early 1990s, as an international biosciences company which makes micrometer pore-size filters and tests. In 2015, Merck acquired Sigma-Aldrich and merged it with Merck Millipore. In the United States and Canada, the life science business is now known as MilliporeSigma.[2][3]
History
Founding
In the early 1950s, Lovell Corporation won a contract from the U.S. Army Chemical Engineers to develop and manufacture membrane filtering devices used to separate the molecular components of fluid samples. When the membranes were declassified in 1953 and offered for commercial use, Jack Bush, son of Vannevar Bush and a Lovell employee, bought the company's technology for $200,000 and established the Millipore Filter Company. Bush coined the word millipore to refer to the numerous tiny openings in the microporous membrane product.[4] The term "millipore", originally a trademark, has since come into generic use, referring to any of several filters, made from cellulose acetate membranes, capable of removing very small particles. Later the company changed its name to Millipore Corporation to reflect its growing range of products. In 2010, Merck KGaA the world's oldest chemical and pharmaceutical company, acquired Millipore Corporation to form EMD Millipore.
Filters
By 1959, Millipore made porous membrane filters of cellulose esters or other materials which resembled paper in sheet form, and were brittle when dry but friable when wet.[5] Filters consisted of nitrocellulose or polycarbonate membrane nucleopore filters ranging from pore size of 0.2 μm (micrometer) to 20 µm. Modern filters are polyvinylidene fluoride and/or polypropylene based.
Growth
By 1970, Millipore had established subsidiaries in seven countries. The company opened manufacturing plants in Jaffrey, New Hampshire; Molsheim, France; Cork, Ireland; and other locations. Millipore's 2006 acquisition of Serologicals Corporation provided entry to high-growth markets for drug discovery products and services, antibodies, cell biology reagents, and stem cell research. As of the late 2000s, Millipore was the only company providing both upstream cell culture and downstream separations offerings for biopharmaceutical production.[citation needed]
Financial history
Millipore Corporation had been publicly traded on the OTC, or NASDAQ, exchange where it had paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1966.[7] In 1987 Millipore Corporation moved from the NASDAQ exchange to the New York Stock Exchange, where it traded under the ticker symbol MIL.[7] Millipore Corporation was on the S&P 500 list of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States[7] until it was acquired by Merck kGaA in 2010. The deal was valued at approximately EUR 5.3 billion (US$7.2 billion).[8] Merck KGaA is not associated with Merck & Co., although the two companies stem from the same parent company.
