Corning Bolsters Life Sciences Business with $400 Million Acquisition
Axygen’s brands include Sorenson, HTL, ALP and Labnet. Corning Life Science generated revenues of $326 million last year to make up 6% of Corning’s total sales. Current Life Sciences products include disposable plastic labware, such as cell culture consumables and microplates, as well as the Epic high-throughput label-free optical biosensor platform. By growing this business, Corning adds more balance to its range of businesses, as well as expands the Life Sciences business geographically.
Corning, NY 9/16/09; Bethesda, Maryland 9/16/09—Corning has acquired Axygen BioScience and its subsidiaries from private equity firm American Capital for $400 million in cash. Axygen is a manufacturer and distributor of life sciences plastic consumables and lab equipment, including pipettes, high-throughput screening products and centrifuges. It will join Corning’s Life Sciences segment. “We believe this highly strategic acquisition offers synergies that will allow us to grow our life sciences business to more than $500 million in revenue by 2011,” stated Corning President and COO Peter F. Volanakis. The acquisition includes Axygen’s two manufacturing sites in Asia, increasing access to Asian customers. Hemant Gupta, Axygen’s founder, will remain with the company and will serve as president and CEO.
