Company Announcements

Harfordbusiness.com reported in January that Eppendorf is undertaking a $25 million, 130,000-sq-ft expansion of its Enfield, Connecticut, production plant, which makes pipettes and pipette tips. The company expects to add 75–90 workers as a result of the expansion.

Sartorius named Dominique Baly to the newly created position of president of Sartorius Group Laboratory Business, effective January 1. He was previously CEO of investment firm Accelerator Sciences and, before that, served as president of Millipore’s Bioscience Division.

GE Healthcare partnered with Key Equipment Finance in January to enable customers to access its equipment for the life sciences through flexible financing packages.

In its conference call, GE reported that GE Healthcare Life Sciences fourth-quarter 2010 sales grew 2%.

In January, IDEX agreed to acquire Microfluidics International for $1.35 per share, net of cash, or approximately $14 million. Microfluidics designs and manufactures equipment used in the production of micro- and nano-scale materials for the pharmaceutical and chemical markets. Microfluidics’ fiscal 2009 sales totaled $16 million.

Analytik Jena increased its stake in AJ Innuscreen to 100%. AJ Innuscreen develops and manufactures molecular diagnostic tests and products for nucleic acid isolation and had fiscal 2010 sales of €1.7 million ($2.3 million).

Agilent appointed Dr. Tachi Yamada to its Board in January, increasing the size of the Board from eight to nine members. He is president of the Global Health Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Illumina opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil, in February, for its Latin American business.

Illumina launched the Illumina Agricultural Greater Good initiative in January, under which it makes its sequencing and genotyping reagents available free of charge to a selected crop or livestock research organization. The International Rice Research Institute received the first grant.

Sales for the quarter ending December 31, 2010, for Hitachi High-Technologies Science & Medical Systems declined 1.5% to ¥26,200 million ($317 million) (see IBO 1/31/11). Within the unit, sales of General-purpose Analytical Instruments, Electron Microscopes, Clinical Analyzers and Biotechnology Products/Others fell 22.5%, 2.2%, 6.6% and 11.6% to make up 12%, 18%, 56% and 14% of unit revenues, respectively.

Pall Chairman, CEO and President Eric Krasnoff announced he intends to retire in March 2012, or earlier, depending on the identification of his successors.

Anton Paar opened a branch office in Ireland, near Dublin, in February.

Danaher reported that 2010 Environmental sales from existing businesses grew 10.5%, and acquisitions added 3.0% to growth.

Water quality core revenue increased in the low double digits. Hach Lange sales surpassed $1 billion, with Chinese revenue exceeding $100 million.