Thermo to Sell Three Businesses to GE for $1.06 Billion
A GE spokesperson told IBO that the three businesses have approximately 625 staff and facilities in the US, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Belgium. According to GE, the proposed HyClone acquisition will add production capability in Asia and the Americas for a more robust supply chain and will serve the needs of customers that like products manufactured locally. GE told IBO: “Our vision is that by offering integrated products, technologies and services for every stage of the manufacturing process, we will be able to help our customers get higher yields and products to market more quickly.” GE also stated that the RNAi gene modulation technologies fits with GE’s portfolio of drug discovery research products, and that the Sera-Mag magnetic bead separation business complements GE’s protein analysis and medical diagnostics capabilities.
Chalfont St. Giles, England 1/6/13; Waltham, MA 1/6/13—GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences division has agreed to acquire Thermo Fisher Scientific’s cell culture media and sera, and gene modulation and magnetic bead businesses for $1.06 billion. The businesses’ estimated combined 2013 revenues were $250 million. The sale of the businesses was required by the EU for approval of Thermo’s purchase of Life Technologies (see IBO 11/30/13). “In addition to providing us with new approaches to drug discovery and biomedical research, this acquisition is a significant step forward for our customers in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. They will benefit immediately from an expanded range of ‘start-to-finish’ technologies that will help them improve product yields and reduce time to market,” stated Kieran Murphy, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Life Sciences. “By expanding our production facilities to three continents, we will be able to offer the biopharmaceutical industry greater confidence in the security of supply of cell culture media and sera, a key part of their production process.” The acquisition is expected to close in the first part of 2014. Thermo stated that it continues to expect its purchase of Life to close in early 2014.
