Linde Completes Acquisition of Lincare

The Linde Group, Clearwater, Fla., announced today that it has successfully completed its acquisition of Lincare Holdings Inc. As a result of the transaction, Lincare has become a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Linde.

On Aug. 8, 2012, Linde completed a tender offer in which it purchased approximately 88.85 percent of the shares of Lincare common stock then outstanding at $41.50 per share in cash.

Today, Linde acquired all the remaining issued and outstanding shares of Lincare common stock by means of a short-form merger in which all such shares were converted into the right to receive the same $41.50 per share in cash that was paid in the tender offer. In order to accomplish the short-form merger, Linde exercised its "top-up" option to purchase additional shares of Lincare common stock directly from the company. Lincare's common stock will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.