Danaher 2011 Annual Report Download - page 20

Table of Contents
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We generally sell our products in industries that are characterized by rapid technological changes, frequent new product introductions and changing industry
standards. If we do not develop innovative new products and product enhancements on a timely basis, our products will become obsolete over time and our
competitive position and financial statements will suffer. Our success will depend on several factors, including our ability to:
• correctly identify customer needs and preferences and predict future needs and preferences;
• allocate our research and development funding to products with higher growth prospects;
• anticipate and respond to our competitors’ development of new products and technological innovations;
• differentiate our offerings from our competitors’ offerings and avoid product commoditization;
• innovate and develop new technologies and applications, and acquire or obtain rights to third-party technologies that may have valuable
applications in our served markets;
• obtain adequate intellectual property rights;
• successfully commercialize new technologies in a timely manner, price them competitively and manufacture and deliver sufficient volumes of new
products of appropriate quality on time; and
• encourage customers to adopt new technologies.
In addition, if we fail to accurately predict future customer needs and preferences or fail to produce viable technologies, we may invest heavily in research and
development of products that do not lead to significant revenue, which would adversely affect our profitability. Even if we successfully innovate and develop
new products and product enhancements, we may incur substantial costs in doing so, and our profitability may suffer.


We cannot provide assurance that our internal controls and compliance systems will always protect us from acts committed by our employees, agents or
business partners that would violate U.S. and/or non-U.S. laws, including the laws governing payments to government officials, bribery, fraud, anti-
kickback and false claims rules, competition, export and import compliance, money laundering and data privacy. In particular, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act, and similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making
improper payments to government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, and we operate in many parts of the world that have experienced
governmental corruption to some degree. Any such improper actions could subject us to civil or criminal investigations in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions,
could lead to substantial civil and criminal, monetary and non-monetary penalties and related shareholder lawsuits, could cause us to incur significant legal
fees and could damage our reputation.

We may not be able to consummate acquisitions at rates similar to the past, which could adversely impact our growth rate and our stock price. Promising
acquisitions are difficult to identify and complete for a number of reasons, including high valuations, competition among prospective buyers, the need to
satisfy applicable closing conditions and antitrust and other regulatory approvals and the availability of affordable funding in the capital markets. In addition,
competition for acquisitions in our current and anticipated business areas is significant and may result in higher purchase prices. Changes in accounting or
regulatory requirements or instability in the credit markets could also adversely impact our ability to consummate acquisitions. Our ability to grow revenues,
earnings and cash flow at or above our historic rates depends in part upon our ability to identify and successfully acquire and integrate businesses at
appropriate prices and realize anticipated synergies.

As part of our business strategy we acquire businesses in the ordinary course, some of which may be material; please see “Management’s Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” (“MD&A”) for additional details. In particular, as of the date of this report the acquisition of
Beckman Coulter, Inc. in June 2011
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Source: DANAHER CORP /DE/, 10-K, February 24, 2012 Powered by Morningstar® Document Research℠
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