Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. agreed to buy Whatman Plc, the U.K. maker of DNA-based products for drug research and police laboratories, for 363 million pounds ($717 million) to gain filters and equipment. Investors in London-based Whatman will get 270 pence a share, Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE said today in a statement. That's 12 percent more than Whatman's closing share price on Feb. 1, the last trading day before today's announcement, and 31 percent more than the closing price on Jan. 14, the day before Whatman's announcement that it had been approached as a target.
