Business News - Veeco Instruments, Agilent Technologies, Merck Millipore

Veeco Instruments Inc completed the sale of its Metrology business to Bruker Corporation in October for $229.4 million in cash. The sale transfers Veeco’s worldwide Metrology business to Bruker, including Veeco’s Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) business in Santa Barbara, CA and its Optical Industrial Metrology (OIM) business in Tucson, AZ, as well as Veeco’s associated global AFM/OIM field sales and support organisation. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc acted as exclusive financial advisor to Veeco in connection with the transaction.

Agilent Technologies and Strand Scientific Intelligence Inc have teamed up to expand the scope of the Agilent GeneSpring bioinformatics system across multiple lifescience disciplines; drive future innovation; and deliver new channels for accessing the software and customer support. Financial details were not disclosed for the multi-year agreement. “We intend to lead the way in providing tools for integrated biology research, and partnering with Strand is an excellent way of addressing the all-important bioinformatics part of the equation,” said Gustavo Salem, Agilent Vice President and General Manager, Biological Systems Division. “Studies combining multiple ’omics experiments are finally delivering the results that were hoped for years ago from systems biology and true translational research, and this is one example of what Agilent is doing to fuel future breakthroughs in biomedical research.” “We’ve enjoyed a close working relationship with Agilent over the past three years developing GeneSpring for gene expression and Mass Profiler Professional for metabolomics and proteomics,” said Francois Mandeville, Strand executive vice president. “We’re extremely pleased to take this partnership up to the next level.”

Merck Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck KGaA, of Germany, is undertaking worldwide distribution of Luminex Corporation’s MAGPIX system. Financial
terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Merck Millipore provides multiplex test kits for the Luminex xMAP® Technology platform. Having acquired the original Luminex reagent partners – Linco and Upstate – for life science research in 2006, the company has reportedly strengthened its commitment to the xMAP platform through its growing line of kits, analysis software, and global sales force, which “provides researchers with a complete solution for rapid, accurate biomarker quantification,” according to John Sweeney, Vice President, Life Sciences, at Merck Millipore. “Merck Millipore has more than 10 years’ experience with the xMAP platform, and their global reach within key research and pharmaceutical laboratories will help bring this important advancement to institutions of all sizes for a variety of life science applications,” said Darin Leigh, Vice President, Commercial Operations, at Luminex.