Palo Alto, CA 1/16/09—Varian has announced that its expects fiscal year 2009 first-quarter sales, for the quarter ended January 2, to be $205–$210 million, compared to revenues of $237.4 million for the same period a year ago. “Although we entered the first quarter with a strong backlog for these products and saw solid orders during […]

Carlsbad, CA 1/27/09—Life Technologies announced that a jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California rendered a verdict in favor of the company in its patent infringement dispute with Illumina (see IBO 12/15/08). Life Technologies stated that following a seven-day trial, the jury ruled that Applied Biosystems’ SOLiD technology for DNA […]

Hillsboro, OR 1/5/09—Electron microscopy firm FEI has announced that its gross bookings for the fourth quarter of 2008 totaled more than $170 million, exceeding its October 2008 forecast of $150 million. FEI noted that the gross bookings will be reduced by 5%–8% due to the normal quarterly revaluation of backlog. “Life Science bookings were paced […]

Illkirch Cedex, France 1/5/09—Chiral Technologies Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daicel Chemical Industries that supplies phases, columns and services for enantioselective chromatography, has acquired ChromTech. Based in Congleton, UK, ChromTech provides protein-based columns for reversed-phase HPLC in three phases. “ChromTech’s specialty line of protein-based columns adds a complimentary product range to our Daicel polysaccharide-based […]

Wetzlar, Germany 1/6/09—Microscopy company Leica Microsystems, a Danaher business, has acquired Surgipath Medical Industries for an undisclosed amount. Based in Richmond, Illinois, Surgipath is a provider of consumables and medical device accessories for clinical histology and research laboratories, including processing reagents, storage and specimen transport devices, and cytology accessories and safety products. “The amalgamation of […]

Milford, MA 1/12/09—Waters has announced preliminary sales for the fourth quarter of 2008 of approximately $418 million. This figure is within the range of the company’s revised guidance announced last month of $410-$420 million (see IBO 12/15/08). Waters specifically attributed the reduced sales volume to unfavorable currency translations, slower spending by chemical manufacturers, continued weak […]

San Diego, CA and Oxford, UK 1/11/09—Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technologies announced a strategic alliance to develop and sell single-molecule DNA sequencing technology. Under a commercialization agreement, Illumina will exclusively market, sell, distribute and service Oxford Nanopore’s BASE Technology products into the research and diagnostic markets. The companies will share profits from the sales. Illumina […]

San Diego, CA 1/9/09 and 1/14/09; Marlborough, MA 1/12/09—Sequenom has announced that it will commence its exchange offer for publicly-held EXACT Sciences, a provider of a noninvasive stool-based DNA screening technology for colorectal cancer, despite a unanimously rejection of its offer by EXACT’s Board. On January 9, Sequenom made public its $41 million all-stock offer […]

Lucerne, Switzerland 12/2/08—Following the sale of its Beverage business and the pending sale of its Real Estate business, Swiss-listed Eichhof Group AG will change its name to Datacolor AG, its Color Management business, early next year and become a dedicated supplier of colorimeters and other color management products (see IBO 8/15/08). The company has also […]

Carlsbad, CA and Abbott Park, IL 12/17/08—Isis Pharmaceuticals announced that Abbott has exercised its option to acquire the remaining equity ownership of Isis’s Ibis Biosciences subsidiary for $175 million and earn-out payments. Bayer currently owns 18.6% of Ibis, for which the company paid $40 million (see IBO 2/15/08, 10/31/08). Ibis’s T5000 Biosensor System identifies and […]