NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) May 12, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that Danaher Corp.'s (A+/Stable/A-1) announcement that its board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to 10 million shares of common stock (equal to about $850 million at today's stock price), does not affect the ratings or outlook on Danaher. The program is open-ended and replaces the company's 2005 stock repurchase program. Demand in Danaher's end markets has been improving and amid recovering operating performance, we expect the company to generate about $1.5 billion of free cash flow in 2010. We believe that Danaher will continue to redeploy free cash primarily for acquisitions. We expect the company to balance its share repurchase activity with its
