GE Buys Microcalorimetry Firm
The acquisition makes GE Healthcare the leading provider of microcalorimetry for pharmaceutical applications, a market in which it competes against Waters’ TA Instruments. The acquisition, like GE’s purchase of Biacore, is an indication of the company’s interest in niche technology markets for drug development.
Chalfont St. Giles, England 9/30/08; Boston, MA 9/30/08—GE Healthcare has acquired MicroCal, a developer and manufacturer of microcalorimeters, for an undisclosed amount from majority owner Riverside Partners and other investors. MicroCal’s 2008 revenues are estimated to be $28 million, up from $21 million in 2007, and have grown at more than 25% annually. According to GE, MicroCal’s systems are used in more than one thousand labs. GE stated that microcalorimetry, which provides information about biomolecules’ structure, function and binding properties, will expand its offerings for protein science and drug discovery and is complementary to the company’s Biacore platform (see IBO 6/30/06). GE will develop MicroCal’s facility in Northampton, Massachusetts, into a center for excellence for microcalorimetry. MicroCal CEO Richard Brown will remain with the company, which has 75 employees.
