(Quality Digest: Chico, California) -- Nikon Corp. has announced an offer to purchase Belgium-based metrology company, Metris N.V., for €5.50 per share. This represents an 107-percent premium to Metris's closing price on NYSE Euronext Brussels as of May 26, 2009, according to Metris. The buyout would cost about €69 million or about $96 million.

Metris board of directors and executive management expressed their support for the intended takeover and say they "will provide its formal response to the proposed takeover bid in the memorandum in reply which it will issue in due course."

In recent years Metris has acquired a variety of 3-D measurement companies, giving the company a broad spectrum of products for small- and large-scale 3-D measurement. Nikon, while strong in a variety of optical measurement technologies, most likely views the purchase of Metris as a way to expand its offerings into the non-contact 3-D measurement market, according to industry sources.

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