San Diego, CA 4/3/08; Santa Clara, CA 4/14/08—Leading microarray provider Affymetrix has reduced its 2008 revenue guidance by approximately 3% to $409–$510 million from $505–$525 million, which would result in sales growth of 10%–37%. The company attributed the reduction to its expectations for lower research spending by pharmaceutical and industrial customers and stated it is […]

Bruker reported its full-year financial results following the publication of IBO’s quarterly sales issue (see IBO 2/29/08). The company also reported pro forma annual results that include Bruker BioSpin (see IBO 12/15/07), showing what to expect now that the companies have merged. Bruker’s fourth-quarter revenues grew 35.5%, 26% on a currency-neutral basis, to $183.7 million […]

Fourth-quarter sales for the Lab Equipment/Consumables Index gained 9.8% to $865 million, while operating profits improved 15.7% to $243 million. Operating margin for the same period improved 150 basis points to 28.1% of sales. For the year, Index sales rose 11.0% to $3,284 million, operating profits increased 20.3% to $700 million and operating margin jumped […]

Migdal Ha’emek, Israel 4/15/08—Jordan Valley Semiconductors has acquired the assets of X-ray diffraction metrology company Bede, which went into administration last month (see IBO 3/31/08). “The acquired technology will fit into our product line almost seamlessly and will strengthen Jordan Valley’s position as the market leader in X-ray metrology,” stated Jordan Valley CEO Isaac Mazor.

The analytical and life science instrument industry has a new number one company. As a result of the acquisition of Fisher Scientific in November 2006 (see IBO 11/15/06), Thermo Fisher Scientific overtook Applied Biosystems in 2007 to become the world’s largest provider of analytical and life science instruments and aftermarket products, based on IBO’s calculations. […]

Company Announcements Environnement SA acquired Iséo, an environmental information systems company, in 2007, for €1 million ($1.4 million). Iséo had sales of €2.2 million ($2.8 million) in 2006. Ocimum Biosolutions raised $17 million from the Kubera Cross Border Fund in a Series B round of financing. Clemex Technologies announced in January that it is reviewing […]

Global food sales grew an average of 1.8% last year, hampered by price increases for most staple items, including milk, eggs, corn and wheat. Food producers have also been impacted by higher electricity and fuel costs, part of what one analyst described as a “perfect storm” for the industry. In 2007, Kraft spent $1.3 billion […]

Uganda’s parliament is set to review the country’s first National Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy, which was passed by the nation’s cabinet on April 2. Along with granting commercialization rights to GM crops, if passed, the law could regulate medical diagnostics, industrial microbiology and biochemical engineering. However, the approval for research of GM crops has been […]