Abbott Completes Acquisition of Cologuard Maker Exact Sciences

Abbott said on Monday, March 23, that it has completed its acquisition of Exact Sciences, the Madison, Wisconsin, maker of the Cologuard colorectal cancer screening test, adding cancer screening and precision oncology diagnostics to its business.

Under the merger agreement, each Exact Sciences share was converted into the right to receive $105.00 in cash, Abbott said in a Form 8-K filing. Exact Sciences is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Abbott, and March 20 was the last day its shares traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, according to Abbott's press release.

The deal

The companies agreed to the deal on November 19, 2025. When it was announced, the $105-a-share price represented a total equity value of about $21 billion and an estimated enterprise value of $23 billion, BizTimes Milwaukee reported. At that time the companies expected it to close in the second quarter of 2026; it closed earlier, in late March.

Exact Sciences was projected to generate more than $3 billion in revenue in 2025 and has about 7,000 employees, according to BizTimes, which reported that the company would keep its presence in Madison and that chief executive Kevin Conroy would stay on in an advisory role during the transition. With Exact, Abbott's total diagnostics sales will exceed $12 billion a year, the publication reported.

What Abbott gets

The acquisition brings Abbott the Cologuard noninvasive colorectal cancer screening test; Oncotype DX, which informs treatment decisions for patients with early-stage breast cancer; Oncodetect, a tumor-informed molecular residual disease test intended to help identify cancer recurrence; and Cancerguard, a multi-cancer early detection blood test, Abbott said. It also adds a pipeline of cancer screening and diagnostic tests in development.

Abbott said the deal establishes it in the $60 billion U.S. cancer screening and precision oncology diagnostics segments and adds a new growth area to its existing expectation of high-single-digit growth.

"Abbott's global scale, track record of operational and commercial excellence and work with healthcare systems around the world will expand access to important tools for early cancer detection and personalized treatments," said Robert B. Ford, Abbott's chairman and chief executive. "With the legacy and deep expertise of the Exact Sciences team, we're ready to transform cancer care."

In its forward-looking statements, Abbott listed risks including its ability to integrate Exact Sciences' operations and to realize the expected synergies and benefits of the transaction within the expected time.