Abbott’s deal to buy Exact Sciences signals increased opportunity for Madison, says Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce president
Photo courtesy of Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce
Abbott’s deal to buy Exact Sciences, the Madison-based cancer diagnostics company, is an “exclamation point” on the region’s status as a biohealth hub, said Zach Brandon, president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce.
The deal, valued at $23 billion, is expected to close in the second quarter of next year.
Exact Sciences has 7,200 employees, with around 3,000 in Dane County.
Brandon spoke to Wisconsin Health News this week about what the deal will mean for the region.
Edited excerpts from the interview are below.
WHN: What impact will this have on the Madison area?
Brandon: The top-line impact is that this region has been heating up for multiple decades — but really accelerated over the last decade — as a place of strength in the biohealth sector. If you think about the names that dot the skyline, so to speak, it’s a density of talent, research and companies that few places in the world can lay claim to.
And so I think this becomes an exclamation point on that information. It allows the world to see that some of the best thinking, research and accomplishments in medicine, in particular in the effort to eradicate cancer, is happening in greater Madison.
WHN: The companies’ joint statement said that after closing the deal, Exact Sciences will “maintain its presence in Madison.” What do you think that means?
Brandon: There are some things we’ve been told, some things that we can ascertain by just critical thinking and then there’s a lot that we don’t know. But the not-knowing means there’s opportunity for us to make the case for additional investment. And I believe that for any company, when they see the density of opportunity, talent and smart people trying to solve some of the deepest, most challenging technology questions in the world, it makes sense to bring additional investment here. We’re going to work between now and (quarter two of 2026) to make the case for additional investment.
A large part of Exact’s presence in this region is in the laboratory and (research and development) space. We feel confident that will remain. That’s a critical piece of Exact’s success … Madison as Exact Sciences’ headquarters, I feel confident that remains for the foreseeable future.
WHN: How will Abbott’s presence affect the Madison area’s biohealth industry? How will it support the development of startups and other companies?
Brandon: Anytime you have a company of Abbott’s size and stature in your community, you’re more likely to get their C-suite and boardroom attention. As they’re thinking strategically about what the future holds for their growth and their success, it certainly creates an opportunity for us to make those cases. As they think about investing in future companies and technologies, it’s a lot easier to look in places where you already have a footprint. And so I expect that to be true. The more there’s leadership present in Madison, the more attention that gets paid to what’s going on here.
Even if there may be a reduction in staff — and we don’t know — there is no shortage of jobs in this space in greater Madison today. There are a number of what I would call multinational, publicly traded companies that have investments in this region that they intend to scale. And so I think the elasticity of our economy, the fact that we continue to grow, but also stretch in new ways, means that the talent here will be met with increased opportunity.
Anytime there is a change in the workforce, what we see is entrepreneurs that surface to the top. In Exact’s workforce, there are likely multiple, if not many, budding entrepreneurs who have thought about a problem they could solve. You couple that with the equity, which is wealth, that has and is going to be transferred to the employees. Our back-of-the-napkin calculation is that upwards of $2 billion has and will be received by Exact’s workforce. You think about $2 billion distributed largely in this region. That is buying homes, retirement, sending your kids to college and vacations. But it’s also going to mint investors. It’s going to mint entrepreneurs. It’s going to mint new startups. So all of these things are positive outcomes, even if there’s a lot that isn’t clear today.
We can’t necessarily tell you how we get from A to Z exactly. But we can tell you that in other places that have gone through this, and in other times that we have gone through this, the opportunities from a transaction of this size and caliber only accelerate.
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