After more than thirty years as a publicly traded company, Mendota Heights-based Patterson Cos. will be taken private under a deal announced Wednesday.

Patient Square Capital, a California-based private equity firm targeting health care companies, has agreed to pay $31.35 in cash per share for the company. That amounts to about $4.1 billion in total.

Patterson, which reported more than $6.5 billion in net sales in its 2024 fiscal year, is a maker of dental equipment and veterinary supplies.

“While Patterson will become a private company after the completion of the transaction, it does not change our core values,” Patterson president and CEO Don Zurbay said in a note to employees this morning. “I am thrilled about the prospects for Patterson’s future. I believe in our strategic plan, employees, customers, and partners. We have a unique opportunity in front of us, and I hope you share our enthusiasm for the opportunities ahead.”

Pending regulatory approval, the deal is slated to close sometime in April, when Patterson’s fiscal year ends. Terms of the deal state that the Minnesota company can search for a better offer over the next 40 days, though an analyst quoted by the Star Tribune indicated that it’s unlikely to find a better offer.

If the deal goes through, Patterson will still keep its headquarters in Minnesota.

In its 2024 fiscal year, Patterson reported total net income of $185.5 million, down slightly from $185.9 million in the prior year.

As of April 2024, the company employed 7,600 full-time workers in total, with about 6,200 of those working in the United States, according to the company’s most recent annual report issued in June.

Patterson’s animal health division has become the company’s biggest source of revenue over the years, despite the fact that the firm was founded nearly 150 years ago as a dental supply company. In its 2024 fiscal year, the animal health segment was responsible for about $4 billion in sales compared to nearly $2.5 billion in sales for its dental business.

E-commerce, meanwhile, has become an “an integral part of dental and animal health supply and distribution relationships,” the company said in its most recent annual filing.

“Our distribution business is characterized by rapid technological developments and intense competition. The continuing advancement of online commerce requires us to cost-effectively adapt to changing technologies, to enhance existing services and to develop and introduce a variety of new services to address the changing demands of consumers and our customers on a timely basis, particularly in response to competitive offerings.”