Danaher plans to buy instrument makerD.C. manufacturer Danaher Corp. will expand its electronic instruments business with a $300 million acquisition of Keithley Instruments Inc.
The acquisition is priced at $21.60 per share in cash, pushing the Solon, Ohio, company’s publicly traded shares up more than 70 percent in Wednesday trading.
Keithley manufactures a wide range of electronic instruments, including those used for producing semiconductors. After the acquisition, it will become part of Danaher’s Tektronix business.
Applebee franchiser to sell restaurants
DineEquity Inc., which franchises and operates Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar and IHOP restaurants, plans to sell 86 Applebee’s locations, including 30 in the Washington area.
The Glendale, Calif., company has entered into three nonbinding letters of intent to sell the company-operated restaurants, it said in a regulatory filing without identifying the buyers. The sales are subject to conditions and are not guaranteed, it said.
DineEquity also will sell Applebee’s locations in Virginia and St. Louis.
Newspaper companies fund news aggregator
Ongo Inc., a news aggregator founded by former eBay veteran Alex Kazim, has received $12 million in financing from the Washington Post Co., the New York Times Co. and Gannett Co. Inc.
The amount each publisher contributed to the investment and the terms of their investment weren’t disclosed.
Ongo Inc. plans to start its service before the end of the year.
Koofers lands VC funding
Reston social learning company Koofers Inc. announced that it has raised $5 million in venture capital.
Koofers provides college students with an array of course materials, professor reviews, historical grading data, textbook price comparison and other study tools.
The 2-year-old company plans to use the $5 million to ramp up product development and expand its content offerings. Koofers has aggregated data from 400 schools — aided by its integration with Facebook.
