Company Announcements

In May, Bruker opened a new Singapore Center of Excellence, which provides sales and after-sales services for Southeast Asia. The Center has a staff of 45 and expects to hire 10 to 20 more employees.

Bruker opened in May a major applications, training and service center in Shanghai, China. The center brings together the firm’s East China operations. Later this year, Bruker will open an additional service and sales office in Guangzhou.

In June, Brian Monahan stepped down as Bruker CFO for personal reasons and accepted the position of vice president of Strategic and Financial Planning. COO William Knight is serving as interim CFO.

Dionex, which was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific in May (see IBO 12/15/10), reported fiscal third-quarter sales of $123.1 million for a 9.1% increase, including a 2% gain from currency (see IBO 5/15/11). Ion chromatography sales fell 4%, and HPLC sales rose 43%. On a currency-neutral basis, sales to North America, Europe and Asia Pacific increased 12%, 7% and 4%, respectively.

GE Analytical Instruments Chief Executive Dr. Michael Routh plans to retire in September.

The GE Healthcare Life Sciences Demonstration Laboratory opened in May at the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) in Stockholm, Sweden (see IBO 4/15/10). The Lab will conduct joint research with SciLifeLab scientists.

Biotage announced a collaborative research agreement with the University of Florence’s Laboratory of Peptide and Protein Chemistry and Biology located in Italy.

In June, IDEX acquired CVI Melles Griot, a manufacturer of precision photonic solutions, from Norwest Equity Partners for $400 million. CVI has annual revenues of $185 million. CVI joined IDEX’s Health and Science Technologies business. The acquisition brought IDEX’s Optics and Photonics Platform to $220 million in revenue.

In June, Roche Applied Science agreed to provide stem cell and cancer researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) with early access to research technologies. Roche and UCLA will also work together to further develop the technologies.

Beckman Coulter, which was acquired by Danaher last month (see IBO 2/15/11), announced in June that Scott C. Atkin, executive vice president of Chemistry, Discovery and Instrument Systems Development, was appointed president of the Life Sciences Division. President and CEO J. Robert Hurley will continue in his position and will also serve as interim president of the Diagnostic Division.

Sales/Orders of Note

In May, Bruker announced new order bookings totaling more than $10 million from a global semiconductor foundry. The order included the InSight 3D atomic force microscopes, D8 Fabline and D8 Discovery X-ray diffraction systems and the S2 Picofox total reflection X-ray fluorescence system.