Dassault announces plan to acquire Medidata for a heart stopping $5.8 billion deal

Dassault Systemes may have started as a CAD/PLM company, but it is morphing into something else entirely. The company has announced plans to buy Medidata, a health care company that provides a cloud-based platform to for clinical trials. In order to manage the deal, Dassault will put together a cash package of approximately $5.8 billion in order to pay $92.25 per share of Medidata. This represents the first time Dassault, an enthusiastic acquisitor, will go into debt for a deal.  A public company, Medidata has 1300 customers who have carried out over 16,000 trials using the Medidata platform. Last year