Packard BioScience Completes Acquisition of GSI Lumonics Life Science Group
Meriden, Connecticut, October 2, 2000 <%=company%> (Nasdaq: PBSC) announced today that the company has acquired GSLI Life Sciences, a division of GSI Lumonics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GSLI; Toronto Exchange: LSI), a leading provider of imaging equipment for biochip and microarray applications. In addition to the imaging product line, Packard has also acquired the bioinformatics software products of GSLI Life Sciences. Packard purchased the company for $40M in cash and approximately 4.6 million shares of Packard common stock (with an adjustment based on net assets acquired). The acquisition will be accounted for as a purchase and is anticipated to be accretive to Packard's cash EPS in 2002 and will have a nominal effect prior to that time.
The GSLI Life Sciences group will become a part of Packard BioChip Technologies, LLC, a new entity formed to highlight Packard's various technologies in the area of biochips. Packard seeks to be a leading provider of biochips and microarray analysis tools, the key enabling technologies for post-genomics and drug discovery research.
Biochips are arrays of miniature testing sites that allow vast numbers of simultaneous experiments to be conducted in a very small area -- leading to research breakthroughs and ultimately bringing life-enhancing therapies to market much faster. GSLI Life Sciences' laser detection and data analysis, which are necessary to extract results from such microarray experiments, combined with Packard's novel biochip formats and patented production technology, will establish an integrated biochip and microarray production and analysis platform. GSLI Life Sciences' ScanArray product line is the established market leader in the fast growing area of laser scanning for biochip and microarray analysis. Due to this market success, GSLI Life Sciences is expecting to grow approximately 50% yearly for the next several years on the basis of $17 million in revenues for the twelve months ended June 30,2000. GSLI Life Sciences' products are used in applications including single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection, gene expression analysis, protein studies and drug discovery.
"We are very excited about this announcement," said Emery Olcott, Chairman and CEO of Packard BioScience. "It underscores our commitment to developing broad, integrated solutions for the drug discovery process. With this acquisition Packard will be among the top three global providers of biochip and microarray tools for genomic and proteomic analysis. As we move beyond the post-genome era, DNA microarray and biochip technology must become widely available as cost-effective, bench-top research tools. Packard is well positioned to meet this need by developing low-cost, custom designed products which combine Packard's proprietary Biochip Arrayer production technology with GSLI's ScanArray readers and bioinformatics software.
Biochips containing microarrays of genetic information promise to be one of the most important research tools in the post-genome era. They are one of the very few platforms that support the highly parallel analysis needed to exploit the explosive growth in genetic information resulting from the sequencing of the human genome. Initial applications will be in drug discovery, pharmacology and clinical research. The emerging field of pharmacogenomics, which explores an individual's genetically determined response to drugs, is particularly expected to benefit from biochip analysis, eventually leading to mass diagnostic and personalized medicine applications. Other biochip applications will include forensics, toxicology and epidemiological research.
"GSI Lumonics' Life Science potential will be best realized with a strategic partner such as Packard BioScience which is focused purely on the life sciences market," said Charles Winston, President & CEO, GSI Lumonics. "By combining our technology and employees with Packard's complementary product lines and worldwide distribution network, Packard will continue to rapidly grow the business."