Waltham, MA 8/31/10—PerkinElmer has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Illumination and Detection Solutions (IDS) business to private equity firm Veritas Capital Fund III for $500 million, or $482 million net of payments for acquired cash balances. The IDS business provides custom-designed specialty lighting and sensor components, subsystems and integration solutions to major OEMs serving applications within health, environmental and security segments. The business is expected to generate revenue of $300 million this year. “The divestiture of our IDS business reduces the complexity of the company and frees up capital to reinvest in our more attractive Human Health and Environmental Health end markets,” said PerkinElmer Chairman and CEO Robert Friel. He also stated that the sale reduces the company’s exposure to more cyclical end markets and that adjusted gross margin is expected to increase by over 200 basis points. The company expects the transaction to be $0.08–$0.10 dilutive in 2011. The transaction is expected to close by year end.