Company Announcements

In a management buyout, Harvard Bioscience sold its Union Biometrica division, the remaining portion of its Capital Equipment business, in October 2008 for $1 in cash, the assumption of certain liabilities and an earn-out.

Harvard Bioscience named Thomas McNaughton, most recently CFO of Tivoli Audio, CFO in November 2008.

Jock Fyfe Lennox, senior partner at Ernst & Young, will join Oxford Instruments’ Board in April.

PerkinElmer entered into a corporate partnership with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s Advanced Training Center in Heidelberg, Germany.

Halma’s Health and Analysis revenue increased 25% to £76 million ($146.9 million) for the half-year ended September 30, 2008 (see IBO 12/15/08).

In December 2008, DKSH’s Life Science and Laboratory Products business acquired Ai Scientific’s Distribution Division, which operates in Australia and New Zealand. The acquisition adds 15 employees to the DKSH business.

In December 2008, Thermo Fisher Scientific opened a $17 million, 150,000-square-foot clinical services facility in Ahmedabad, India, which will serve as a hub for packaging, global distribution and logistics management for its clinical services business. Thermo Fisher Scientific has more than 600 employees and 20 facilities in India.

The Hour website reported in December 2008 that Life Technologies plans to close the Norwalk, Connecticut, office of Applied Biosystems by July and eliminate about 100 positions.

Life Technologies appointed William S. Shanahan to its Board in December 2008. He is the former president of Colgate-Palmolive.

In December 2008, Illumina named Mark Lewis senior vice president of Development. He was most recently vice president of Special Order Research Products at Becton Dickinson Biosciences.

Mettler-Toledo appointed Chief Executive Olivier Filliol to its Board, effective January 1.

GE Healthcare Life Sciences entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Spinco Biotech for India.

Chromatography consumables firm Restek became a 100% employee-owned company on January 1, transitioning from 22% employee ownership under an employee stock ownership plan. The Performance Coatings business was spun off to form SilcoTek, which is led by Restek Chairman Paul Silvis.

Sales/Orders of Note

Analytik Jena announced in November 2008 a €2.5 million ($3.2 million) order from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention for 90 instruments to equip centers in six provinces. The order consisted of 41 ZEEnit atomic absorption spectrometers, 43 Specord UV-Visible spectrophotometers and 6 multi N/C systems for the measurement of total organic carbon/total nitrogen.