London, UK 10/24/18—The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has commenced an investigation to determine if Thermo Fisher Scientific’s planned acquisition of Gatan (see IBO 6/30/18) will lessen competition in the UK market. The Authority is currently accepting written comments and will decide by December 19 whether to advance the investigation to Phase 2.

 Thermo Fisher Scientific owns FEI, one of the world’s largest suppliers of electron microscopy systems (EMs). As a provider of accessories, enhancements and software for EM, Gatan supplies multiple EM companies and customers. Among the techniques that its products enable are electron backscatter diffraction and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, two markets for which UK-based Oxford Instruments also provides detectors and software.