Guildford, UK 10/31/17—Danaher has acquired IDBS, a supplier of enterprise scientific informatics platforms, for an undisclosed amount. IDBS offerings include the IDBS E-WorkBook Cloud. IDBS joins Danaher Life Sciences. “IDBS’ informatics solutions integrate insights derived using scientific instruments from various vendors and from many different disciplines, enabling better and faster scientific and business decisions ultimately affording patients faster and better therapies.” commented Danaher Executive Vice President Rainer Blair. “IDBS opens a new generation of vendor agnostic information-based digital services for Danaher and makes the digital lab a reality.” IDBS Founder and CEO Neil Kipling stated, “By linking the IDBS knowledge management platform with their comprehensive instrument coverage it will create a ‘data spine’ that connects instruments, creating opportunities for new information-based services and the realization of the digital lab of the future.” IDBS’ platform technologies are used by over 200 pharmaceutical companies, health care providers, universities and high-tech companies.

According to a spokesperson for IDBS, the company has 250 employees. Citing sources familiar with the deal, Bloomberg reported a purchase price of about $100 million. With the purchase, Danaher enters the lab informatics market, specifically the ELN market, joining other analytical instrument makers, such as Agilent Technologies and PerkinElmer. The market’s largest provider is privately held LabWare.

The purchase provides Danaher Life Sciences with informatics expertise and platforms.  As with its purchases of Leica Microsystems and SCIEX and their impact on the confocal microscopy and MS markets, respectively, Danaher’s latest purchase can be expected to increase market competition both for lab information management for research labs and also for its instrument offerings, as it can now provide more integrated solutions for lab data management as well as cloud-enabled options.